


Jon goes back and gets a semi happy ending (as a treat)

by OnceInAYear



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Ace Jon, Canon Typical Weirdness, Canon-Typical Violence, Elias gets to experience real fear and panic in this one cause its what he deserves, F/F, He lost all his fucks an eternity ago, Its time travel time bby, Jon is just really rolling with the punches in this one, Jonathan Sims deserved better and so does the OG Archive Crew, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sasha deserved better, Slow Burn, The Mechanisms Were The Archivist's College Band, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:42:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 78,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23067193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnceInAYear/pseuds/OnceInAYear
Summary: Jon travels back in time, except he never actually tells anyone and if he also uses the opportunity to screw with a few people well that's really his businessSet after Mag. 160, deals with everything that we know up until that point (with the exception of tapes that were recorded during S1-4 and mentioned after episode 160) and explores the possibility of Jon gaining new powers as well as trying his best to stop the end of the world—————-'The idea that John has any fun whatsoever astonishes me.' -AlexWELL PREPARE TO BE ASTONISHED—————-
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Georgie Barker & Jonathan Sims, Gerard Keay & Jonathan Sims, Jonathan Sims & Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 502
Kudos: 1350
Collections: Time Travel Fics That Water My Crops





	1. The Eye focuses

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly this is my first fanfic so ya i'll probs fix small things along the line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon ponders and drifts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lads this is set about right after 160, meaning Martin and Jon have already left the safehouse, but only mentions the stuff from the new season in passing so mostly spoiler free!

If Jon had been asked at what point exactly it all went wrong he wouldn't know how to reply.

Was it when Sasha was replaced by that thing in the table? Was it when he went to stop the Unknowing? Maybe the turning point was when he rejected Helen and let her walk her path without any support and in turn doomed his own humanity. Or maybe it was at the very beginning when he let his paranoia and his need to know get the better of him.

At this point, the beginning of it all rarely mattered anymore, it was only the End now. Time itself was always hard for him, after all, how can one pay attention to the passage of time when one is either working themselfes to the point of exhaustion. The need to satisfy his own curiosity or when one was dealing with whatever monster was after him took up most of his attention.  
  
He couldn't even acknowledge that he was in a coma for 6 months, what did time really matter in the End? 

After he caused the apocalypse how could anything even matter? He and Martin really tried to make it out there somehow, they really did. Eventually, Jon stopped keeping track of time and spend his moments either pondering his guilt while they scavenged or spend his time with Martin when they could afford to stop and rest for a while. Back then that was all that mattered.

God, he remembered his soft words and warm hugs so clearly. Of course, he knew it wouldn't last, how could it?

Sooner or later something would come for them and when all that was left was to wait they could hardly do anything about it.

In the End, it wasn't an avatar or some other creature that got them, or at the very least it wasn't caused by one of them directly. After he ended the world, natural disasters would occur frequently and without rhyme or reason.

They had been hiding out with other survivors in a town when the earthquake happened and by then it was too late to run.

Martin had been torn from him along with every other soul and Jon's only saving grace was his ability to withstand most damage. He didn't even have time to reach out for him when the ground collapsed and swallowed the town whole.

While he was falling into the seemingly bottomless pit that opened up, Jon wondered what happened to the others. Catching up with Basira hadn't been an option with society collapsing further and further and Georgie and Melanie have distanced themselves and so he never managed to confirm their latest whereabouts. 

Jon knew of course, that he could simply _look_ for them, but his fear prevented him from doing so.

He wasn't sure he could handle another breakdown over another death, he couldn't do that to Martin while the other tried so hard to stay positive. So there he was, lying several hundred meters below ground covered by dirt and feeling completely hollow inside. The crushing weight wouldn't allow tears to stream down his face but he knew they were there all the same.

How long Jon was lying there he couldn't say, time stopped mattering a while ago after all and without the need to breathe or feed with the Eye so high up in the sky and drinking it all in, he wondered how long it would take him to dig himself out. If he wanted to dig himself out at all that is.

Eventually, with nothing left to do the, flood of information broke through and he was forced to give in. His patron watched and thereby relied the knowledge to him as well: the current population was down to 7 Billion, most of America was flooded, several species have died out, some places continue on as normal and don't plan on stopping anytime soon, and so on and so forth.

It all felt so strangely comforting, the information flooding his senses and sweeping his worries away, and Jon continued to lie there in the darkness for a very, very long time.

He spent his waking moments pondering the past, his very first statement 'The Anglerfish' in itself should've been the first clue something was wrong. Ironic wasn't it? How he was also drawn in by his curiosity towards his doom. Was that the beginning perhaps? Had he lost his humanity from the very moment he read his first statement and just didn't notice it until much later when it was pointed out to him?

Or maybe he just didn't want to notice. If time was an endless Uroboros that began and ended at the same interconnecting point, then surely the very moment he read his first statement was also the moment the world ended? It set things into motion at the very least.

Jon wondered, if he could do it all again, would it have been different? 

Eventually, after however many eons, or maybe it was seconds ('time is hard to keep track of' Helen had said), something changed.

The ceaseless Watcher started to stir.

Jon thought for sure that whatever Elias did would keep it occupied with him for an indefinite amount of time, maybe he was controlling the tectonic shift or rebuilding the world or whatever caused Martin's and subsequently, the world's, demise.

He had never wanted to make someone suffer so thoroughly and painfully as he did before but by the Eye, he would murder the man eventually. Whatever the Eye was doing now he couldn't tell for sure but the many eyes that took up the sky these days (or nights, weeks, moments whatever) seemed to focus on his center point all at once and Jon felt...

Annoyance? Boredom? No that couldn't be right, could it?

Then a flood of information slammed through his mind like a tsunami destroying a flimsy leaf, so badly did it storm through him that it took him a small eternity to scramble what was left of his brain together.

Maybe Jon would've even screamed if the dirt wasn't in the way.

Speaking of the buried, the ground started to move around him, shifting and morphing until he realised that it was pushing him up towards the surface. It seemed that even though all the Entities passed over into their world, the eye was still top-dog on the power balance scale all 14 occupied.

The Buried was reluctant to let him go, he could feel as much, but as he pushed through the upper crust and met with a sharp gust of cold air the shock wouldn't allow him to focus on that feeling much more. It took a while for him to remember how to breathe and as the air flooded back into his unused lungs he almost missed the secure (if crushing) weight of the dirt and the comfort it brought him.

Jon was sure he must've made a sorry sight gasping at the top of a giant circle of dirt and he swore a sliver of amusement filtered through him before he opened his eyes and stared at the God before him. His God. For what else could it be now?

For a while he just stared at It. His many eyes opening to meet the infinite amount his patron possessed and all was quiet. Then suddenly, a series of images, thoughts, no, maybe feelings? filtered through him and Jon knew and thereby understood two fundamental facts at that very moment:

1\. The Eye subsisted on new information and always looked towards new and interesting events and

2\. It didn't like this ending at all

\------------------------------------------------

Jon struggled for a moment to put together what this meant exactly when the realization hit him. The outrage was enough to help him find his voice.

'You can't be serious' he rasped.

The Eye stared back.

'You're what bored? Is that it?' even with his voice so misused, his indignation managed to seep into his words nonetheless.

The Eye stared back.

'The literal apocalypse happened and now that it became old news you suddenly don't like it anymore? What the hell am I supposed to do about it??'

Although Jon was sure that yelling at a literal fear entity wasn't a good idea the nerve of the damn thing made him incredibly angry.

"Everyone died and the world collapsed and you're just bored?? If you hate it so much go bother Elias about it, he's the reason this whole fucking thing happened in the first place!" Jon struggled to get up but his rage overshadowed any protest his body made easily and soon he stood there screaming and ranting without pause.

The Eye merely watched for a while but when his rant ended with "-I can't do anything about that, I couldn't even keep Martin alive! How am I supposed to fix an entire world?!" it let out what could only be described as a tremorous pulse which shook the earth around him and blew down the trees that grew around the outskirts of what was once left of the town.

Jon could feel his sight blurring and as he lost focus on the area around him, his vision filled with an endless expanse of space and he knew all at once, that he was no longer on earth and while he struggled to conceive the reality of the broad expanse around him, a sentence cut through his mind like a scalpel to his nerves and suddenly, the area behind his eyes was set alight with a wave of pain and fear never felt before as the passive Watcher roared:

_**Ġ̵̛̪̲̩̪͕̗̦̠̩̼̼̰͙̗̹͚̓̿̿̐̇͒̊̕̕ͅo̸̧̧̨̡̪̯̝̼̞̙͓̻̺͚̦̝͕̳̺̖͍͍̦͈̺̹͖̪͕̔͆͋̾͑͒̈́̌̇̈́͋̃̄͊̒̾̄̊̆͊̐͘͜͝ ̴̢̧̨͖͔̥̮̪̙͚̩̲̩̤͎̤̺͓̟̫̟̗̞̲̻̼̲͔̯͎̥̳̖́͌͗͗̏̀̚͝͝ͅͅḅ̶̡̭̱̳̲̈̅̂̇̌̈́̽̈́̂̽̃͆̈́̃͒̽̓͊̒̍̊̃̽̿̚͠͝͝͝ͅa̵̢̨̨̛̻̗̻̭͇͚͔̘̗͖̹̩͋̅͑͊̊̋̚̕͜͝ͅc̸̛̰͉̥̫̞̬̀̐̂͌̓̅̇̅̏̂͒̅͗̈́͂͋͒̐̒̅̇͐̓̎͂̈̋̃̓͌͘͝͝k̶̡̧̗̱̥͖̗͈̘͉̓͌̈́̏̿̽̌̓̒̍̈̂͆͑͌̓͌̌̽̇́̿̅̒̽͑͐̍̋͘͘͜͜͠ͅͅ ̵̧̧̜̣̗̻͈̝̟̤͖̺̗̲̖̣̪̰̭̙͇͔͍̜̠͖̲̎͗͐͜͜͜** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you can't read it it says 'go back' the Eye is NOT having any of Jon's shit lmao


	2. A penny for your thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok episode 161 killed me, I'll include 1(ONE) thing from that episode and that's Gertrude's tape so skip ahead until the paragraph cut -----

Jon didn't know how long he was floating in that moment. Time didn't exist and neither did space.

It was much like lying beneath the shifting dirt when the buried swallowed them whole, except this time there was no comforting pressure, no soft sounds of earth around him as whatever little movement the buried made, enveloped him.

Now there was only deafening silence.

If Jon was not so acutely aware of the Eye's presence as well as his own thoughts still racing through his head, he would've come to the conclusion that he died. What did the Eye say again, 'Go back'? But what does the past even mean anymore, time stopped mattering the moment he read the incantation.

The clocks all stopped ticking at that very moment, never to resume their synchronized beats.

However long Jon spent in this state, he did not know but he could tell that whatever the Eye was doing to him would take a while. Or was it the outside world that was changing?

Whichever it was, Jon spent his time rethinking his choices and actions up until Martin's demise. He could have spent all of eternity curled into a ball just mourning his partner (and wasn't that term still fresh and new on his mind no matter how often he thought about it) but if the Eye really did plan to send him back to the very beginning, he would most certainly need a plan.

Jon recalled the tapes that have been sent to the safehouse before he and Martin finally ventured outside. Martin hadn't been all too keen on listening to them but Jon's curiosity always won out. When did it not?

God, Martin..., when was the last time Jon saw him smile outside their small moments where they both could afford to take comfort in each others presence? No, he couldn't think about that now. There was no need to mourn something that had yet to happen, or if things went his way, would never happen at all.

Right the tapes.

Gertrude did mention the danger Jon had faced and also gave him some information on her cooperation with Leitner. If he had that warning beforehand he could have prevented a lot of grief on his part or at the very least, he and his assistants would have been informed about the danger they would have to face.

  
It occurred to him that he was more concerned about the fate of the people around him rather than the subsequent end of the world, maybe that was some side effect of no longer being human. The End of the world wasn't dreaded by monsters now, was it?

Jon didn't have the energy to dwell on his humanity (or lack thereof) and so he ended that train of thought quickly before it turned into another self-loathing session.

\---------------------------------------------------------------(spoiler-free after this line)

One thing was sure, Jon would need to get his hands on these tapes and more importantly he would have to figure out a way to change the future. The obvious solution would be to blow up the institute with Jonah inside but Jon never actually tested the effectiveness of that theory and his coworkers were supposedly bound to Jonah's life and could suffer if he tried.

Jon also knew that the Eye would not let him destroy the Archives, not with so much relevant information inside as well as it being its current location of power.

Therefore, unless Jon managed to replicate the Archives and also make this new location (and or building) more significant than the Magnus Institue he couldn't blow the latter up. Maybe if he managed to create such a place his coworkers, bound more to the Eye than their shitty boss, would be better utilized there and the Eye wouldn't care about Jonah and his life binding contracts anymore.

It was certainly worth a shot. Trying was still better than never acting at all.

That wouldn't solve the problem of being trapped in a place that worshipped an ancient fear god but it would take Jonah's bargaining chip away and make it easier to kill him while also keeping his coworkers alive as the Eye would consider serving the new location more important.

Now that Jon thought about it, he never actually saw or knew if his old boss fed the Eye at all, if he dumped all of his responsibilities on Jon (which would be typical as Jonah hardly bothered to lift a finger), surely his death wouldn't actually impact the Eyes food source at all.

If his patron would even allow Jon to kill the Watcher he didn't know but he would make sure that the damn thing would be both fed and had a source or location of power set up before he attempted anything.

Then there was the issue of keeping his coworkers alive in the first place.

Jane Prentiss could be easily dealt with, enough fire extinguishers would do the trick, however, he didn't want to risk anyone getting attacked so he would have to find a different strategy for making sure the Corruption never enters the Institute.

Melanie could be easily kept away from the Institute and any paranormal activity, he'd just have to talk with Georgie first. Daisy and Basira would come up later but getting rid of or taking the coffin early might simplify matters.

Daisy might still want to kill him but if he could be careful enough, that shouldn't be a problem either. Jon wondered if she would believe him if he told her he was from the future, then again it was more likely she would stab him if she smelled the Eye on him. Unfortunately going back in time wouldn't stop the nightmares of those he had taken a statement from, so he'd have to be really careful about his sleep schedule as well, lest he wanted them to attack him.

After fully Becoming, he had to sleep less and less so maybe he could manage to sleep during the daylight hours of the weekend and work through the nights undetected.

Jon remembered the suffocating embrace of the buried and wondered if sleeping in the thing like a vampire in those cliche movies would be too on the nose. Then again, better than being beaten up by other avatars for haunting their dreams. Jude Perry and Mike Crew he could avoid, as he already had their statements and he didn't need to chase after Gertrude's paper trail anymore. The Black Sun could be dealt with later and Gerry wouldn't go anywhere as he was trapped in a book kept by two hunters.

Jon didn't have the convenience of travelling through hallways or flying everywhere and a business trip so early on in his new position would only be suspicious with Elias watching. Speaking of the devil, Jon would have to be very careful about what he says and how he behaves, although Jonah would be watching whenever he could, the Eye would still prevent any and all attempts at reading his mind.

If Jon could get his hands on Leitner's book or some other form of disturbance it would make every other move of his a lot easier. He would only have to play it off as some sort of side effect or some other unexplainable phenomenon that plagued their lives.

The circus itself was a big problem, not only did Breekon and Hope carry the table that housed the NotThem, which killed and replaced Sasha but they also carried the coffin, which trapped Daisy, with them and would report any suspicious behaviour to Nikola immediately.

Although Jon knew that the ritual would fail no matter what, they still presented a very real danger to himself and his Assistants and would need to be dealt with eventually. Maybe he could tip off the police to their activities and Daisy would manage to hunt them down herself? No that could not happen either, as she did get trapped the last time and Jon really did not feel comfortable sending one of his friends to their death.  
  
Preventing the theft of Gertrude's and Leitner's skin would be easy enough, he would burn the former's corpse in the tunnels where Jonah couldn't see him and keep Leitner alive and far away from any clown activity (even if the man was responsible for a lot of misery in the world), he might even have some useful answers to Jon's question and a part of him couldn't wait to compel them out of him.

There was another twinge behind Jon's eyelids that started to intensify and he knew that whatever was happening would soon come to an end. So far, he had three main things to take care of:

1\. Meet with Georgie early and rekindle their friendship (and also keep Melanie away from the train yard and India)

2\. Steal down into the tunnels to burn Gertrude's body and take all the tapes (and also maybe find Leitner if possible)

3\. Survive long enough without sleep during the night and catch as much rest as possible during the day where others would be awake and could not dream of him

The last part was easy enough, Jon was always a bit of a workaholic so sleeping on the Job could be easily excused as long as he didn't fall behind on work. He would also make sure to treat his coworkers better and also not arouse enough suspicion in the process of trying to save them. Who knows maybe he would even get some goddamn rest for once in his life if he played his cards right.

A twinge, once again, exploded into a tremendous amount of pain and before he knew it, his senses started to return to him slowly. He was vaguely aware that he was sitting in a chair with his head propped on his arms and a tape recorder noise running nearby. The smell of hot tea hit him all at once and his eyes burst open as he flailed about disoriented. Jon cursed himself for this as he made a lot of noise and he was sure Martin or one of his other Assistants would come running to investigate.

However, when he picked himself off of the floor with some difficulty, where he accidentally fell off of his chair after regaining his senses all at once, he noticed that it was quiet in his office.

  
Apart from the buzzing headache that split his head into tiny little shards and the noise of the tape recorder, not a sound could be heard outside.

Usually, there would be some background noise of chatter or the sound of the heater running as the poor isolation in the old building made it rather cold to work in, or depending on the Season, sometimes unbearable hot to work in and the ventilation had been broken for a while. The lack of noise was very disconcerning.

Jon opened his eyes with a lot of effort and blearily looked around.

After a while, his eyes focused on the small wooden clock that hung in his old office, having been drawn there by some unseen force, and he realised it stood completely still. Before he could contemplate the implication of this discovery his eyes locked on the statement that lay on his table, big in heavy block readers written at the top it read **"The** **Anglerfish"**.

It was the 15th of May 2015 and Jonathan Sims was just promoted to Head-Archivist before Gertrude's body had the chance to properly cool and going by the labelled tape lying on his desk, he had just recorded his first statement.

And then the clock resumed ticking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lads I'm p sure Elias just turned the damn ventilation system off to plague anyone who worked at the institute and also so he could fill it with co2 to get rid of any worms what a dickhead  
> also this chapter is mostly some Jon thinking but hey everyone needs a plan especially if you're floating in a void with nothing else to do but think


	3. Mirror Mirror on the wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ya'll we never do see Jon properly develop his powers like other avatars do, do we? How bout we change that

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long I wanted to make fanart for this  
> https://violentlyimagined.tumblr.com/post/614858417757143040/archivist-jon-what-statements-will-he-read

It was the 15th of May 2015 and Jon had just recorded his first statement.

Of course, the Eye wouldn't let him chose again, of course not.

It hadn't had a powerful avatar in many centuries and giving him the choice of whether he should become the Archivist again, or avoid the whole thing altogether, would have been too generous.

No, It made an investment by sending him back and it would make sure that it would pay off.

Then again, Jon was not sure if he could resist if he had been given the choice, the need for knowledge always managed to pull him back in and with his memories intact he'd probably go down the same path anyway.

Looking around while his head was still pounding was a chore on its own, but the bitter resentment over a choice taken from him was worse somehow.

Nevertheless, his office looked exactly like it did before: a big heavy wooden desk that had been bought as a replacement after the old one was 'discovered' to be covered in blood by Elias, his office chair with the wheels that he used way too much, the old wooden clock that hung there since before Jon got promoted and of course the dust-filled bookcases full of unopened boxes and old books and maps.

While Jon took a look at his old office he noticed that somehow he was able to see more details, even without really focusing on them.

There was the key Gertrude hid behind some books that led him and the others to the C4, a tiny spider was sitting behind a book in its web, not alert but definitely there all the same and ready to report back once something happened, and most importantly, much to Jon's bewilderment, a tiny door with a spirally handle that blended in almost perfectly with the wall where it was placed upon on the top shelf.

So he had been observed by other powers since the beginning, just great.

What surprised Jon the most though, was the Spiral's influence in the Archives. Usually, Its presence could be felt as it created a blindspot in the Eye's vision but knowing that it could choose to manifest almost completely undetected was worrying. Speaking of being able to see things more clearly, his office was just covered in dust! How did the others work in this mess without triggering any dust allergies?

Oh dear god, the others.

Jon may have travelled back in time but he **knew** that he wasn't human anymore. Being able to see every dust spec should be proof enough of that. He had to check if he still had all his scars but without a mirror in his office, he would have to sneak over to the bathroom across the hall.

Carefully, without alerting the spider, he made his way over to his door and peeked outside through the glass at the top.

If he was quick enough, he would make it without anyone noticing but sprinting over to it would be suspicious as well and his throbbing headache would most likely not allow for any fast movement in the first place.

Jon decided that if anyone asked he would simply blame his odd behaviour on his headache and began to make his move towards the bathroom at a slow pace.

He remembered that they ended up using it more often the closer they came to the Unknowing and the fond way Basira used to stare at Daisy and him fighting over who'd get to brush their teeth first resurfaced in his mind. He could curl up into a ball and start crying all over again but he'd have make sure that he would not ruin his second chance by being caught up in any of his angsty drama and instead try to set things right again.

Besides, he was not sure he could handle Martin's worried look at the moment so, for the time being, he would have to save his breakdown for later.

Finally making it to the bathroom, Jon locked the door behind him and braced himself against the sink. He did not think that his reflection would affect him all that much, he remembered how he looked like after all, but looking at his own face shocked him all the same. He was young, god he looked so young.

Being 28 years old with a grey-streak automatically made him appear older, but looking back at his reflection made him realise that he was not as old as he thought he was back then.

His hair was still kept short and not tied together in a messy bun (he'd have to grow it back out again, he missed having his hair brushed) and his face wasn't riddled with small worm scars and, most importantly, his eye bags weren't so pronounced that it made him look like an insomniac yet.

Two things, however, remained all the same:

1\. his eyes were no longer their regular dark brown but instead were glowing a bright green and

2\. the earring was still there

That was going to be a problem.

The glowing eyes he could control, in fact, after he managed to focus and splash some water on his face, the glow simmered down until his eyes looked relatively normal.

The earring, however, was definitely going to be a problem.

It was one of those dangling ones, entirely made of gold and a tiny crown at the top with a small chain leading down to an eye.

After he ended the world the damn thing just appeared on his earlobe and would not come off no matter how much he and Martin tried. It had no plug or latch at the back and looked as if it was glued on, yet couldn't be removed.

Even if he managed to play it off as an impulsive piercing choice and convince the others, Elias most definitely would be suspicious.

The longer Jon leaned against the sink, staring at his own reflection, the odder it began to look.

If asked, he wouldn't be able to discern what was wrong but it almost looked... liquid? No that couldn't be right, it was a solid surface, why would it be liquid?

As he slowly reached up towards it, his gaze managed to zero in on the bathroom mirror like tunnel vision, and as his hand touched the surface the small fluorescent light above him flickered and-

"Jon? Are you in there?" came from outside the bathroom accompanied by a little knock, "I brought you some tea, are you alright?"

Shit, he could not be seen right now but acting suspiciously by locking himself in the bathroom all day was not an option either.

"Just a moment!" he managed to shout, although it came out somehow scratchy and off. Jon turned on the water and washed his hands just so he could have an excuse as to why it was taking him so long.

"Are you alright? You sound kind of off" Martin called out "Not that I mean that in a bad way I just meant that-"

Jon had to grip onto the sink to steady himself and fight off the nausea while Martin rambled on about how worried he was and that he was just checking up on Jon, to see if he had wanted some tea and-

His knuckles had turned white from gripping the sink too hard and he forced himself to relax and take a deep breath.

"Jon?", Martin asked nervously.

Jon reached over and opened the door, trying to force a tired smile onto his face "I'm alright, sorry I'm just...having a migraine." he managed to croak out.

Martin straightened up a little over the sudden opening of the door and looked at him with some concern, "Oh, you're a little flushed, are you sure you're fine?"

This version of Martin was so young as well, still a little awkward around everyone and trying his best to fit in and stay out of the way and be as helpful as possible. Things had been so different back then...

Jon just blinked at him tiredly, had he not noticed the earring? He looked back over at the mirror and noticed that it was gone but that made no sense he could feel it dangling against his neck and wasn't it-

"Jon?" Martin's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to look at him.

"Yes, I'm alright already feeling a little better", he said while reaching up to grasp his temple, he'd have to investigate the earring back in the safety of his home,", besides, it's gonna be 5 soon I'm going to get some rest at home and take some Ibuprofen".

Now that Martin mentioned it, he did feel a bit flushed, also, why was he able to tell the exact time? He knew it was 4:45 right now and yet he did not have to look at a clock to know that.

Martin just looked at him strangely with furled eyebrows "Alright, if you say so..."

Crap, back at the safe house he was used to listening to Martin whenever the other was worried about his health and, as an effect, adapted a sort of routine to take a break whenever he felt tired or sick. However, this Martin would probably find it odd that Jon was following his suggestion and actually went home on time for once.

Jon slowly straightened up a little and made to move out of the bathroom while steadying himself on the nearest wall under Martin's worried, if not confused gaze. "I'm just feeling a little under the weather", Jon replied with a tired sigh he did not at all have to fake, "must be the stress of organising the archives, I'll probably be better after some water and a good night sleep", not that he was planning on sleeping during the night ever again, but nevertheless his words seemed to have the desired effect.

"Oh, you really shouldn't push yourself so hard!" Martin, ever the mother hen, replied "Sasha, Tim and me will be able to help you out there, I mean that's what assistants are for, after all, right?" he said while smiling nervously and rubbing at the back of his neck. "Do you need any help with-"

There was no way Jon would let the others look at any of those statements, he would have to subtly replace them with the fake ones to make sure none of them would be too exposed to the Eye's influence or got themselves into real danger.

They would have to stick to those that were too old to find evidence of or could be recorded on the computer, so they would ~~**no** **t touch them without him overseeing it**~~ be safe.

He let out a cough, brushing off the surpising edge of Beholding there and steadied himself.

He felt a little bad about abusing Martin's compassion like that but his head was throbbing and he had a lot to process and dealing with others was not something he could manage right now.

"No that won't be necessary" he interrupted.

Martin slumped a little at that "oh.... of course, I figured I'd offer since you're not feeling well and all." he said with a small voice.

Goddamit.

Jon rubbed at his face with both hands as soon as he entered his office with Martin trailing behind him.

He'd spent close to two hours staring at himself in the mirror.

There was that buzz in the back of his mind again? Just how did he know the damn time??

He took his hands down from his face and got his jacket and bag from his desk. One thing he did pick up on after the apocalypse, was smiling at others and telling them he was fine even if he wasn't, back at the safehouse it became easier and easier to the point where he did it automatically.

He managed to put on his jacket with some effort, god any movement felt slow as if he was walking through a muddy swamp, and made for the door.

"Really I'm alright, I'll take a cab back home," he said while giving Martin a reassuring smile "I'm already feeling a little better after splashing some water on my face".

Martin brightened at that considerably, "Oh that's good! Well just take it easy then alright?"

\---------------------------------

'Good Job Sims', Jon thought while making his way down the hall and up the stairs to the exit, 'you managed not to upset him for once'.

While he was walking through the foyer, he exchanged a few quick words with Rosie at the reception and made for the exit when he felt a presence prickling at the back of his neck.

Elias Bouchard was watching him.

This weekend would be incredibly stressful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen I looooove chickpeamcb's headcanon on tumblr about avatars having entity related earrings I looove it so much
> 
> also ep 162 fucked me up how we doin lads?


	4. Weekend blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did I mention this fic is a slow burn? I just really want to explore more of characters in everyday situations especially when the character is not human anymore and has to deal with shit like laundry

Getting into the tube, while he felt like he was moving through a haze and his limbs grew heavier by the minute, was difficult. Jon felt a little bad about lying to Martin, he could have taken a cab, but interacting with the driver or god forbid, slipping up somehow and revealing his nature by being alone with someone and dragging a story out of them, was not a chance he was willing to take. At least in the tube, he could slump in his seat and try to ignore the itching feeling of Elias gaze on him.

This time around at least, he knew when and who was watching him. He was sure it was Elias, whatever sight the Eye allowed him told him so with utmost certainty. The downside was that he would have to act normally at home, and even though the very fact of Elias stalking him outside office hours made his blood boil he could not afford to confront the man in this state. Mainly because Jon would kick his teeth in on sight. He would have to keep his anger in check when talking to the man and avoid him as often as possible.

Eventually, the tube arrived at his stop and he managed to peel himself off the seat and get out. As he was walking towards his street a jolt through his head informed him that he usually did his shopping on Friday and would need to get groceries before passing out at home. 

The corner store he usually went to was always open after work and seemed like a bright island amidst the dark stone that made up the streets he travelled. Going inside, the lights immediately assaulted his senses but after a while his eyes began to adjust. God, when was the last time he ate anything that wasn't canned or dried. Right, what did normal people get again? Spaghetti maybe?

Jon took out a basket from the pile at the entrance and began traversing the aisles. He remembered that the handful of cashiers here knew him quite well, as this store was usually open past midnight and he would head there to grab some coffee or tea when he was up studying or working on some project or other. He grabbed some canned tomatoes, the one thing that ran out almost immediately since neither Martin nor himself knew how to cook anything except a handful of dishes. After the tomatoes followed noodles, some spices, that Jon recalled he had long ran out of, as well as tea, coffee and some frozen meat and fish. He almost skipped the candy aisle but backpedalled almost immediately as he realised he had not had chocolate or cookies in forever.

Needless to say, the basket was becoming full yet, Jon found that he had no trouble carrying it even while he was disoriented. He also grabbed some potatoes, chives and shallots just in case he would feel like cooking something with it later since the vegetables would not spoil as quickly.

Jon headed to the checkout, which was thankfully manned by a bored-looking teenager and not someone he knew, and proceeded to pay for his groceries. The poor kid probably thought he was talking to a workaholic or something, as ruffled as he looked, but thankfully kept his mouth shut. Walking the remaining 10 minutes home happened in a blur and he was heading up the stairs in a daze. Only as he stood in front of the door with the bags in his hands, that he didn't even remember asking for, did it occur to him to dig his keys out of his pocket.

Entering his apartment felt extremely off, he hadn't been in his old place since he got kidnapped and after that, it never felt safe enough to stay in, so he started either staying with Daisy or living in the archives fulltime. He would have to move eventually, as the circus managed to find out where he lived. He barely managed to kick off his shoes, leaving the groceries by the door, and head to the bedroom. He could still feel Elias' gaze on him, it had followed him all the way from the institute to his home and Jon didn't particularly feel like dealing with it at the moment. His boss was probably wondering why his archivist had suddenly gotten sick but Jon figured he would be able to blame it on a cold on Monday.

It was 6 pm right now so he'd have exactly 3 hours of sleep before it was 9 and he would start to appear in people's nightmares again as most statement-givers went to sleep during that time. His method probably wouldn't be 100% foolproof and becoming nocturnal all of a sudden while also working a 9 to 5 job would most likely leave him drowsy, but it was still better than explaining to people why he was showing up in their nightmares to stare at them. He'd have to drop by at Georgie's place soon and introduce himself to Melanie, both of them tended to take naps during the day when they worked on their respective shows and maybe he could play it off somehow. 

Slipping into bed, he didn't have it in him to change into his sleepwear or take a shower, Jon set his alarm to 9 pm sharp. God, he hoped that that would be enough and that Elias would stop watching him by then. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light.

Jon's dreams made no sense to him, somewhere a clock was ticking ever so steady and the light around him was shifting in different colours. As always, as soon as he looked up, the eye was there watching him and for once there was no fear or trepidation of horrible things yet to come, instead, he was just tired. After floating there for a while he started to focus on the ticking. It was a steady, almost comforting sound and as he listened to it he couldn't help but notice that, whatever clock was working in his dreamscape, was exactly on time. He felt as if he could tell the time more accurately down to the Millisecond, and slowly, as he began to count along, the colours inside his mind started shifting to the ticks it made. As he counted past 2 hours and 59 minutes exactly, a shrill sound rang through his head.

His eyes snapped open immediately. The first thing he noticed was that the room was dark and his alarm was going off in the corner. Jon blearily focussed and reached an arm over to silence it. His body still felt like it was made of led but at least his head wasn't throbbing as badly anymore. Elias was also no longer watching him. Silently celebrating his victory he slowly managed to rise to a sitting position. The bed was so bloody comfortable he didn't want to leave, yet through sheer will alone Jon got up and headed for the shower. 

Feeling the water on his skin after what felt like an eternity of being buried was heavenly. He took extra care to use some scented shampoo, a Christmas gift from some holiday party a long time ago, that smelled like mango as well as some coffee scented body scrub. After easily spending 2 hours under the spray, enjoying the warmth of the water, he made himself get out and head to the sink while wrapping a towel around his hips.

Behind the mirror was a half-empty packet of Ibuprofen, of which he gladly took one just in case the throbbing headache was coming back. As he shut the cabinet his eyes focussed on his hand. It was completely devoid of any worm scars and Jude's burn mark was gone. Still somewhat sleepy, it took Jon a while to process this discovery and as he did, he began to rapidly check himself for any further marks. His ribs were accounted for, Michael and Helen's scars were gone and any back- or knee pain he had from the explosion at the wax museum was gone as well. He was a black state once more.

So the Eye didn't just transport him back as he was, but either somehow removed his marks or merely implanted his memories into a younger version of himself. He wasn't sure which thought was more horrifying. Then again if the Eye implanted his memories of the future that was yet to come it still wouldn't explain why he was no longer human. The answers to those questions were something nobody else but the Eye itself could answer and he'd rather not have to deal with another wave of pain as however the giant eyeball managed to communicate with him in his mind, left him with a giant headache the last time.

While he stood there looking at his midsection scanning his ribs, the soft clink of his earring distracted him once more. Oh, that's right, the damn thing somehow disappeared while he was talking to Martin. Jon looked up at his reflection and found it to be completely devoid of any jewellery. So either the damn thing was invisible or he was going crazy. But that made no sense he could feel it in his hand as he reached up to touch it yet his reflection showed him grasping at air. It felt wrong somehow.

While he stared, the mirror started looking odd again, the draw he felt back in the institute's bathroom was back and as he reached up to touch the glass once more, not only did his eyes start to glow but his earring magically appeared again.

Jon quickly snatched his hand back and stared at himself, the eyes he managed to get under control again and although they ceased their glow, the earring stayed where it was. Alright, so it was messed up mirror magic then, just great. He frowned at himself and raised his hand once more to the cold surface. This time he kept it there longer and it almost started to feel like...liquid? He tried focussing on his appearance again and just like last time, the earring disappeared from his reflection. The longer he kept his hand there, the more it felt like he could just push himself through the surface somehow and he watched with fascination as his fingers sunk into the mirror up to his palm.

He snapped out of it almost immediately and staggered back towards the floor with a shout.

"Oh fuck no, I am not doing this right now" Jon muttered while getting to his feet, once again the reflection showed him his younger, scar-free self, with no earring and a slowly receding green glow in his eyes "oh great so cosmetic changes are a thing now".

Why couldn't he have something useful as a power? Like setting stuff on fire or super strength or anything that he could use as self-defence so he wouldn't get kidnapped every other week. No, instead his powers had to be asking prying questions, stalking people in their dreams and altering his appearance through a mirror, just great. 

He stepped out of the bathroom after cranking a window to let the steam out and headed to get dressed in some comfortable sweatpants he owned from college and a rare T-shirt he found buried in his drawers. Why the hell he even bothered to keep his wardrobe full of white button-ups and suits was anyone's guess. He'd have to go shopping for some regular clothes for once, maybe sweaters, he usually had to steal some from Martin during their stay in the cabin.

A sad smile fell on his face. He would have to make do with any comfort he could get away with, now that any connections he had built in the past were nonexistent. While he went to retrieve the forgotten groceries from his doorstep, Jon wondered if he would even be able to reconnect with any of his friends. 

Georgie and Melanie weren't together yet, but he could fix a future falling out with them. Georgie didn't want to get involved and he'd just have to respect that, she may not be an ally but she was definitely a friend again. If she bothered to talk to him that is. Jon would have to find a way to explain his situation somehow without creeping her out or make up a lie on the fly as to why he decided to contact her again. He remembered that their breakup had been messy and winced, she was way too nice to him after he'd been an asshole and he would have to make it up to her somehow.

While Jon was putting away the boxes of spaghetti he got, he noticed that the cashier hat put in one of these lottery cards you could get after spending more than 100 pounds on something. He definitely went a little too wild on his shopping spree but chocolate became a rarity during the apocalypse and he quickly dug around in his bags to fish some out. He might not need food for sustenance anymore, but goddamn these kit-kat bars taste good. After letting out a small groan, he deserved some candy after all that shit thank you very much, he wondered if his relationship with the others would be salvageable at all.

Daisy would definitely be the hardest to get close to again, they bonded in the coffin and she wasn't quick to trust, especially since she killed other avatars whether they were harmful or not. He only got close to Basira after spending time with Daisy a lot and even then, the conversations between them were tense. 

As he plopped himself down on his kitchen stool munching on his candy, he realised that he might just have to give up on those two for good. There was no way he would approach either of them and cause suspicion when he had to stop the Unknowing, and he would not allow Daisy to get trapped in the coffin once again.

His assistants were a whole different problem, he barely had memories of the real Sasha so talking to her would feel odd and he remembered how Tim reacted to supernatural stuff. He could barely look Martin in the eyes without remembering the version of him he had lost. Before he knew it his eyes started to get wet and he quickly wiped any unspilled tears away. No, he wouldn't let them come to harm again, whether they came out hating him in the end would not matter, as long as they were alive.

Why did he accept that stupid promotion? All he ever did as an avatar was grasping at straws and be afraid for either himself or others. He didn't have a religious conviction like Manuella had, he didn't feel the love that Jane spoke of in her statement, and he sure as hell didn't love his entity like avatars of the Vast did.

No, all fear ever did was to hurt him, maybe it was time he started to hurt it back.

Jon tried focussing on his powers and after a moment he felt his eyes start to glow. Alright, it was time to pick himself up by the bootstraps, he had the advantage of knowing the future, hiding his nature through the mirror and the Eye wouldn't allow Elias to riffle through his mind anymore and take any information he wanted.

Beholding allowed him to know certain things he didn't have to ask about but was hardly useful in this regard, what could possibly be relevant about **the** **Australian Fitzroy river turtle and the North American eastern painted turtle breathe through their behinds, Dolphins use Pufferfish to get high, the Lottery numbers for Wednesday 27th May 2015 are 12,27,28,39,41,48 (3), the milk in his fridge was about to expire and-**

Jon came back to himself with a gasp. Right of course, whenever he tried to use his powers he immediately got flooded with a wave of information, it's not like Elias ever bothered to teach him anything so he'd have to work on that himself. He slowly got up to check his phone and, as predicted, he spent more than 4 hours idling about.

As he was checking his phone for any news on anything that might be related to the circus he froze.

Wait a minute, _he **knew** the lottery numbers. _Now normally the Eye would not be able to tell the future, but this wasn't the future, was it? Winning the lottery wasn't something that he expected to do in this new timeline but any extra cash would definitely help in the long run. 

He rushed to fish the lottery card out of his paper trash and quickly filled in the numbers. There was no guarantee that this would work but if Elias could abuse his powers to make people cry or stalk others, Jon could at least use his to have some getaway money stored just in case he needed to make a run for it. He didn't know if this would actually work but it wouldn't hurt to try out.

After settling for some quick scrambled eggs with toast, he sent a quick text to Georgie, asking if she was free this Saturday evening to talk and headed to the living room. It was 23:00 and he'd have to burn 10 hours until the sun came up again and people started heading to work at 9. He plopped himself down on his couch after shoving some papers off of it, god he really needed to clean this place up a bit every damn nook and cranny was filled with either books, papers or thrown about random things that he left there and never bothered to clean up. At least there were no food containers strewn about.

Oh well, it's been a while since he could waste time on relaxation, might as well catch up on some documentaries he had saved on his watchlist. Planet Earth sounds like a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo i have jon's exact body wash and shampoo hell yeah  
> next chapter some interaction with Georgie and we find out whats going on with Jon's weird time stuff  
> also jon is a certified dumbass, its not a cosmetic change if only your reflection changes smh


	5. Weekend blues (pt 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon visits Georgie and the Admiral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fashionable Jon rights

At 3 am sharp while Jon was halfway through an episode of kitchen nightmares, which he randomly discovered in his recommended list, he got a reply from Georgie. He vaguely remembered that she liked to edit her next episode on a Friday to have the weekend free and sometimes stayed up late as a result. His curtains were closed and moonlight barely peeked through.

Jon paused the episodes and untangled himself from the blankets before fishing out his phone to read the message.

'Hey Jon, how have you been? Yes, I'm free on Saturday.'

Jon thought for a while on how he could word 'Hey I'm from the future and also a monster can you tell your future girlfriend to stop doing her show thanks' and decided instead on:

'I am fine, things are a bit hectic right now but I am managing. Is your offer from way back when still on the table?'

'Pfff you make it sound like centuries have passed since we last saw each other! Of course, it's still on the table! '

Jon snorted at that, Georgie didn't even know how right she was.

'Well, it has been a while. Can we talk this weekend sometime?'

'Sure thing, tho I have to ask this isn't a drunken booty call, is it? Cause that ship has sailed a loooong time ago, Jonathan.'

'No, I assure you that I am perfectly sober. I merely wanted to catch up with you. Besides, you're not the only one who has move on, Georgina. ' that last part was merely added out of spite for using her old nickname for him, god he forgot all about that, it's really been too long since they talked.

'Ooooooooo >:o Jonathan Sims, the local menace to polite society hooked up with someone???? Oh, you definitely have to tell me all about that soon!'

Jon's ears warmed a little at that, she wasn't entirely wrong, even if he would have worded it differently.

'Right, well are you free at 6 pm then? I still have to sleep off my earlier migraine and I know that you're usually up late anyway to play your games on the computer.'

'*Play your games on the computer*he says, don't you act like an old man, Sims!!! I distinctly remember kicking your ass at Mario Kart in college during a drunken weekend of ours >:) and go to sleep, why are you up so late?? I'll see you at 6! '

Jon replied with a 'You too Georgie, see you then.' before tossing his phone into the blanket and stretching.

Everyone would be getting up at around 9 am which would leave him about 8 hours of sleep during the day to catch up on some sleep. As he was getting up, his phone buzzed again.

'Btw the stinky man has missed you!!' the message read followed by a picture of the recently disturbed Admiral dangling from Georgie's arms in the mirror.

He chuckled at that before finally getting up, he had 6 hours to burn before it was safe to sleep.

Might as well get some food, spaghetti shouldn't be too difficult.

\-----------------------------------------

Spaghetti, was in fact, extremely difficult.

Jon didn't know that it was even possible to burn liquid so after his first attempt resulted in a smoking pan, he turned to an online tutorial. Learning how to cook wasn't something that he'd usually consider to do but would most likely come in handy later. Besides having hobbies was something well-adjusted people had, and Jon desperately wanted to be a part of that. Maybe if he got really good at it he could even impress Martin when he'd come over and-

No, Jon shook his head, he had a world to save. Personal relationships were not a priority right now he'd just cook for himself then. After straining the noodles and adding the sauce, Jon placed himself on one of his kitchen chairs and continued watching more of the cooking videos. 'Binging with Babish' had different types of videos including kitchen basics and basic cooking techniques. Jon wasn't even sure he owned more than one knife.

He was about to research from where he should order some when he stopped. What was the point of getting new stuff when he'd have to leave his apartment eventually? If the circus found out where he lived the last time there was nothing stopping them from doing so again.

While looking around his kitchen, he realised that he wasn't even all that attached to his apartment in the first place. There were no pictures, no familiar warmth of Tea, blankets and a comfortable fireplace to warm oneself on. It was just empty and apart from the furniture he bought for the place and the various messes he had left around, it looked pretty much the same as when he had first moved in. Usually, he wouldn't care for such trivialities but after living with Martin for so long he couldn't help but want something more personal for himself.

Well if that lottery ticket came through he might just buy a house, Jon thought with some amusement, maybe even invite people over.

Eventually, 9 am rolled around and Jon collapsed back into his bed with a thud. Being awake for so long left him drowsy and it would take a couple more nights,(no technically days, he reminded himself) until he was used to it. His dreams were uneventful and before long, the sound of his alarm woke him up.

After taking a quick shower and putting on his least formal outfit (urgh suits really?) he took to the streets. Georgie didn't live very far away from his own place and he couldn't help but wonder how Daisy didn't find him sooner, back when she was still hunting him. Then again, he wasn't the type of person to share much about his personal life and that wouldn't change anytime soon.

That made him think, didn't Georgie lie to the police for him? She must've dealt with police interrogation while he was too busy reading statements. Yet another thing he'd have to make up for.

Before he knew it, he was already ringing the doorbell and walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor. Ugh, during college he had helped her drag a couch up the stairs into her apartment and that had been a trial and a half. The building itself hadn't changed much, the rent was cheaper here since it was farther from university and was mostly being rented out to singles, yet well connected in terms of public transport.

After making it to her door he debated on how exactly he should approach this and why didn't he think of this before he wasted several hours on a cooking channel-

Georgie ended up opening the door before he had a chance to knock and startled him. Burying his hands in his jacket (one that actually fit him and he remembered her buying for him as a birthday present), his shoulders slightly scrunched up and he managed to get out a single "Hey".

"Hey", said Georgie while peaking out around her door. Being scrutinized by others had never been a pleasant feeling and he was well aware that she might still hold a grudge. Back when he had shown up at her door, dishevelled and panicked after discovering Leitner's corpse, it had been more or less a life or death situation. This time he didn't have a good excuse. Maybe he didn't need one. He had missed her, missed everyone now that he thought about it, and the guilt of dragging her and Melanie into this weighed heavy on his shoulders. No, he wouldn't let that happen again. Jon managed to relax his shoulders before bringing up a hand as a weak attempt at a handshake.

"May I come in?" he simply said.

Before he had the chance to step back or even cover, should she decide to hit him, he was being swept up into a tight bear hug. Oh.

He barely managed to embrace her back while she was squeezing him but it seemed she got the message nonetheless.

"Of course you can come in, you giant oaf!" she murmured before finally releasing him and putting him back down on her own two feet. Right, he forgot that Georgie wasn't the type to hold grudges but based on past experiences he really couldn't blame himself for assuming some amount of violence would be involved.

"I'm so sorry Georgie." he said in a small voice "I really haven't been a good friend, nor did I respect your boundaries." Admitting that much was the least he owed her even if she had no idea what that apology was even for.

"Oh, you", she said while smiling back at him. When was the last time any of his friends had reason to smile? "I stopped being mad after 2 weeks or so, though it did sting that you just cut me off like that mister!" she put her hands on her hips before continuing in an amused voice "Rude, Jonathan, really rude!".

Properly chastised he couldn't help but bring a hand up to rub at the back of his neck nervously. "Well I was a bit of a dick, one could say" he chuckled softly.

"A bit is an understatement Jon!" she replied cheerily "Come on inside before the neighbours come out to complain about this blatant display of affection!"

Georgie turned to walk inside and he remembered to take off his shoes before following her. Her apartment was much better lived in than his, pictures and photographs adorned the walls and the walls were painted a warm sandy colour.

Somewhere the tea kettle whistled along with the sounds of the radio and he remembered that she had kept his favourite type of tea in her cupboard while he crashed on her couch.

"Oh let me get that in a moment, make yourself at home! Do you still like the black tea with the dried orange and lemon pieces inside?" she asked while padding over to the kitchen.

"Oh yes I do, 3 sugars if it isn't a bother", Jon replied and sat down on the sofa. Georgie's living room was connected to her kitchen, which made eating in front of the Television even more tempting, and took off his jacket. While he was leaning to the side to drape it over the sofa, a familiar MrrMw sound rang out from the bedroom accompanied by the jiggling of a bell as small paws made their way to the living room.

Before he knew it Jon was confronted with a face full of orange fur that had jumped up on the backrest and was purring up a storm. He laughed before sweeping up the criminal in question, the latter which looked all too pleased with himself.

"Well, I suppose someone is glad to see me" Jon chuckled before placing the Admiral on his lap.

"Jon!" came to reply. Jon turned around, ready to help Georgie with whatever she needed. Except Georgie was busy humming along to the radio while waiting for the tea to brew and didn't look like she had called out to him. Before Jon could question his sanity a voice, that sounded very much like Georgie's own, rang out again and he looked down. The Admiral was looking up at him expectantly while still purring up a storm and said, which Jon realised was actually supposed to sound like a regular meow to human ears, "Jon!". If he managed to hold back the tears while being swept up in an embrace he sure as hell couldn't have stopped them this time even if he tried.

"Oh I missed you too, Admiral" he chocked out before burying his face in the cat's soft fur while the latter kept purring. He completely forgot that he could understand other languages, he never considered that animals were part of that as well.

Before long Georgie walked her way over to him with two steaming mugs and sat down on the couch next to him. "Well I knew you'd be pleased to see the little stinky man but I didn't think you'd be moved to tears"

"Georgie!" the Admiral meowed again before getting up and settling between the both of them. Jon slowly raised his head from the backseat and turned to sit down properly again before replying "Don't call him that, and you could say it's been a rough weekend". Georgie wordlessly handed him his mug of sweet-smelling tea, which he gratefully accepted. "So," she said "how have you been then? You don't look like you're doing all too good Jon".

Jon chuckled at that "No, I haven't been doing all that well and in all honesty, I don't even know where to start." He sipped on his tea before continuing "but let me start with an apology first. I know you said that you aren't mad anymore but I still want to make it up to you sometime. I have been behaving like a total dunce and... well I shouldn't have. "

"Apology accepted you goofball" she replied while smiling over the rim of her mug "although it kinda sounds like you’re apologising for more than just the breakup"

Jon smiled back, as much as he wanted to tell her he just couldn't bring himself to do so at the moment. Besides, you never know who or, more importantly, what was listening in. "You don't have to worry about that, that I can promise you. But I do have a favour to ask before I start off, do you have contact with Melanie from Ghost Hunt UK?"

Georgie set down her mug slowly and crossed her arms "Oh, so you did contact me for a booty call."

Jon choked on his tea "What??? Oh god no, it's nothing like that! It's about an upcoming episode her team is planning for goodness sake, Georgie!"

She finally cracked a smile before throwing up her hands and clapping him on the back while he sputtered "Ah relax I'm just teasing you! Yes I have contact with Melanie, why "

Jon managed to expulse the last bit of tea before continuing "They're planning an expedition to an abandoned warehouse and it will be really dangerous, I need you to call her and ask her not to go."

Georgie frowned at that a little "Are you sure? It's going to be really weird for me to just call her up and tell her not to. She's been really excited about it."

"Definitely sure, I know for a fact that it's dangerous and it's not like I can ask her myself", he said before righting himself "Look I can't go into detail with this and I know it sounds really suspicious but I need you to believe me that it isn't safe there and whatever ghost or monster they're chasing is not very friendly"

Georgie regarded him with a long look "Alright."

He looked at her with surprise "What just like that?"

"Yep, but only under one condition."

"Depends on the condition" Jon replied warily, he did not like the intense look in her eyes.

"You're going to have to tell me why"

"Look, Georgie, I can't just-"

"Nope!" she replied cheerily "If you want me to ruin my friends' upcoming adventure you're gonna have to give me a valid reason!"

Jon grit his teeth, she had a point but what could he possibly say- ah fuck it "Ok, do you believe in monsters?"

Georgie paused, clearly taken aback "What?"

"Do you believe in monsters? The real kind, not some ghost or boogieman or whatever, the real kind." Of course, she did, he already knew the answer but this was important "I know for a fact that one of these is going to cause some real harm to Melanie and her friends and I can even show you the proof but I can't do that yet alright things have been difficult and I'm being watched and I really can't afford to blow this when-"

"Whoa whoa Jon slow down", Georgie said with a worried look while setting down her cup on the small living room table. "What's this about and what do you mean you're being watched?"

Jon slumped back into the couch "Look do you believe in monsters or not?"

"I do" Georgie replied

"Then I need you to convince Melanie somehow. I don't care how just please make sure that she never goes to that warehouse!" Whatever desperation managed to sneak through seemed to get to her, she looked at him sternly before replying "So you think they're real too."

He let out a bitter laugh "I know that they're real, Georgie. I always knew. I was just too afraid to admit it"

"Well fuck."

"That's not even the lot of it Georgie you have no idea. I promise I'll tell you why but I can't do so now, not until I can make sure no one is listening in, can you wait until then, please?" he genuinely didn't know what he would do if she declined but she seemed to believe him.

"All right, I'll call her", she replied

"Thank you," he said, his cup long forgotten on the table.

"Jon are you... are you alright?"

"Not-Alright doesn't even begin to cover it ", he replied while closing his eyes "I recently got promoted to Head-Archivist at the Magnus Institute" and oh didn't those words carry more weight with them than she could understand.

"Promoted to- Promoted to Head Archivist? Why you don't even have a background in publishing!" she said bewildered.

"Yes well, that's how it is and now I have to deal with it even if I was never qualified" god he sounded so tired.

"Huh..." a long pause stretched between them

"I supposed when you're at the top, no one can tell you that you're doing something wrong"

He chuckled "You have no idea how right you are, Georgie". Jon opened his eyes, she was looking at the floor now clutching her empty mug. "I came here because I need your help"

Looking up at him, "So there's more to it than monsters, huh?" she said jokingly.

"Mhhm, not quite." Technically he did also count as a monster now "My job requires me to deal with some of the horrors people have seen and have been plagued by. I read a statement and catalogue their suffering, and well..." he sighed "I'm not exactly...dealing with it as well as I should be". That was putting it mildly but he'd have to hold off on the time travel stuff until he was sure no-one else was listening in. Elias wasn't the only one interested in his doings.

"Oh, Jon," she said with worry in her eyes "Is it really that bad? Like, no offence but you don't look like you slept much"

"Oh I slept plenty, I'm just dealing with an adjustment to my sleeping schedule right now" he patted the sleeping Admiral next to him absently "I don't exactly... sleep during the day anymore."

"What, why?! Jon, that's awful!"

"The nightmares make it impossible to do so for me at this point," he said without looking back at her.

"... Well shit, can I help somehow?" her hand reached out to touch him on the shoulder.

"I... I just want to feel human again" he said in a small voice "I'm so tired and things just went so wrong and now I just-" tears started to gather in his eyes again and he tried his best to will them away.

She pulled him into another tight embrace and he buried his face into her sweater while sobbing silently. The strain of the last two days finally came down on him and he just couldn't take it anymore. "Georgie I- I need to tell you, I don't... I'm not human anymore." She hugged him tighter, slightly jostling the Admiral who lifted his head to look up at both of them and then resumed purring. Despite the situation, Jon smiled fondly at him. "What do you mean?" asked Georgie quietly. "I just- reading all those statements, documenting everything that happened to those people and just **watching** " that last word sounded fuzzy in his mouth "I'm not human anymore, I know that for sure." 

She was quiet for a moment before slowly letting go of him to look him in the eyes, he wasn't proud of the tears that were rolling down his face but right now he didn't have it in him to care. "And I'm not asking for you to get involved, I know you would never agree to that but I just really need someone to help me adjust right now. I just need to feel human again and not like some kind of..of" his sob prevented him from finishing that sentence and he took a moment to collect himself-

"Alright, I'm gonna stop you right there"

"What?"

Georgie regarded him with a stern look "I'm gonna help you out, and the first thing on the list is to stop beating yourself down, that's not gonna help you. I'm not going to sit here while you beat yourself up over it for however long it’s been and-"

"1 hour and 57 minutes " he replied shakily.

"What?"

"It's been exactly 1 hour and 57 minutes since I've come here. I have this thing now where I just... know" he chuckled.

Georgie blinked at him before fishing her phone out to check the time "Huh... so what you're some kind of time lord now, how is that even- no nevermind I wasn't done yet!" She threw her phone back into the pillows before pointing a finger at him "Jonathan Sims, you listen to me, we're going to deal with this like adults. I'm going to help you out and its going to be ok, you hear me?" Jon looked at her with confusion but she just narrowed her eyes at him before scooting closer and throwing an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into another hug.

"You're going to be alright, come on say it!"

"I... Georgie what?"

"SAY IT!"

"I'm going to be alright?"

"Damn right you are!" she said with a wide smile "there, we spoke it into existence and now it's gonna come true no matter what! We'll deal with your weird timelord powers together!"

Jon laughed despite himself, Georgie's attitude was just too damn infectious, "I'm not a timelord, Georgie! This isn't doctor who for goodness sake! I just happen to know things about people and sometimes those things just fall into my head without my say so!"

"Oh so you're a nerd then" she replied while ruffling his head "And it's called thinking Jon, it's not that uncommon for others"

Jon struggled to break out of her grip but was smiling despite looking slightly more unkempt "Yes well can a nerd do this?" and he flashed his eyes at her.

"Whoa, that's so freaky!" she said before releasing him. She sounded way too excited about this, ah but he forgot that she couldn't feel fear anymore, didn't he?

"It's a whole less cool when you eat people's fear, Georgie" he chuckled sadly before reaching up to smooth his hair into place. Eventually, they both fell into a sombre silence before she relaxed back against the pillows and urged him to do the same. It had gotten dark out by now and all was quiet except for the quiet ticking of the clock. Jon found it strangely comforting.

"Hey... uh, I know this is coming out of nowhere but could you maybe come clothes shopping with me sometime? I recently realised that my wardrobe consists entirely out of suits and I need some help picking stuff out that doesn't look like..."

"Like you just came out of a room that you've been eating sardines in for 15 years?" she chuckled

"Yes that describes it accurately" he chuckled back before closing his eyes and relaxing.

"So tell me something then, brainman"

"Like what?"

"Well, if your power is to know things why don't you tell me some cool facts"

"Georgie my powers aren't exactly...good, I can only tell you the 'scary stuff', as you would call it"

Jon heard a snort from the other end of the couch "So what no positive things at all then?"

He thought back at the flood of information that had occurred in his apartment the last time he had tried to open his many eyes up to the world and hesitated.

"It gets... overwhelming and it's not like I had time to practice" not with Elias making sure to turn his life into a living hell anyway, he thought bitterly.

"Well... no time like the present right? Gimme some cool animal facts" she joked before adding a calmer "only if you want to though" at the end.

"Alright, I'll... I'll try" he replied before opening his mind up and trying to filter the oncoming stream of information out. Jon was surprised that after a while, the pressure actually let off a little.

**"Sea otters hold hands when they sleep to not drift apart; Penguins propose to each other with a pebble; Dolphins have names for each other; Butterflies taste with their feet; goats have accents-"**

They spent the whole night on the couch while Jon rambled on and as the sun came up he felt more human than he did in many years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this during a zoom meeting  
> also wooo called Jons love for coffee  
> Jon's angst in this one is real thank fuck Georgie snaps him out of it


	6. Rise and shine mateys it is monday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon renovates and returns to work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lads quarantine is getting to me I made bread today at 9 am  
> also its been two weeks (I'm a college student and so can't guarantee weekly updates) but the chapter is double the length to make up for it

They ended up talking throughout the night. Jon had no idea that there was so much to know about the animal kingdom and yet they spent several hours talking until the sun came up at 5.

"Well this was fun and enlightening, never knew that birds had such colourful mating rituals", Georgie said while stretching "do you feel any better then?"

"I...I think I do. It's been a while since I could just... let go. It was nice, I actually felt like I was getting the hang of it" Jon replied. It actually did feel easier to filter out the stream of information than before so he assumed that 'practice makes perfect' applied to weird fear powers as well. "Want to get started on breakfast? I call eggs", he said before getting up and stretching as well.

"You always call eggs!" she laughed "I'll call toast and tea then, make mine sunny side up with tomatoes and some of that chilli sauce I like, please"

"Sure thing." Jon went ahead to the kitchen and the Admiral, ever the food-driven furball decided to tag along on the promise of wet food. Jon located the drawer in which Georgie kept all the cat food and scooped some into his bowl before putting a checkmark on the feeding schedule. Both of them put in place during college when they realised he was pretending to starve in front of them both and was gaining weight.

Jon fished a pan and some oil out of the cupboard and got started on breakfast. Georgie was always very adamant about adding tomatoes last so they wouldn't lose any flavour and so he fished five eggs out of her refrigerator, whilst ignoring the number of takeout boxes piled on in it, as well as some bacon and cheese. He always put the bacon in last, so it wouldn't make the eggs too greasy and while they were cooking he went on ahead to fish some mugs out for both of them while Georgie was in the bathroom.

Neither of them was fond of doing the dishes, which was apparent by the full dishwasher, and so he got the mug with the dog on a beach while giving Georgie the one with the spider at a desk and a 'web designer' logo below. Some things he did have to draw the line at and having a spider mug was a little too personal. The eggs were done and so he added some cheese and chilli sauce to Georgie's while fishing his out, and putting the lid on to melt the cheese.

"I have some spare travel toothbrushes if you want to brush your teeth", Georgie said while trotting into the kitchen "go ahead I'll watch the eggs"

Jon nodded before heading off to the bathroom, behind him a "you already had food you little deviant I see the checkmark!" rang out followed by an upset sounding "Georgie!" and he smiled as he closed the door. A spare toothbrush had been left for him and he quickly finished freshening up. A quick glance in the mirror showed no change in his appearance which meant that thankfully using his powers wouldn't reveal anything unless he wanted to change it in the mirror. At least he hoped that's how it worked.

Reaching for his earlobe confirmed that the earring was in fact still there and didn't just disappear overnight. He would have to experiment with that later when he could be sure no eyes that weren't his were watching.

"Want butter on your toast?" Georgie asked when he returned to the kitchen

"Sure and by the way could you not mention my... condition in detail if we talk about it in the future? My boss is kinda evil and is stalking me with his powers" Jon said before plopping himself down on the chair and digging into his plate. After a while, he noticed that Georgie hand't responded so he looked up and realised she was staring at him. Blinking the exhaustion away "ah sorry its too early for a filter" he replied sheepishly.

"So evil boss, huh?"

"Yep"

"And he's stalking you with weird eye powers"

"Yep"

"Alright then. Why?"

Jon put down his tea and looked up at her "He wants me to end the world basically"

"Ah", she said and sipped on her cup

"Ayup"

"Jon that really sucks"

"Yes I know Georgie, I'm working on it "

Neither of them was an early bird and it really showed in moments like this, Jon thought with some bemusement.

"Jon, you know that sounds crazy, right? You sound crazy", she said nonchalantly while popping a tomato in her mouth.

"Want me to show you my eyes again? Or tell you a secret about yourself you'd never want anyone to know? Or maybe tell me about a horrible experience in your life?"

"No that's fine I just wanted to mention that that sounds crazy" she continued.

"Well it kind of is", he said after finishing the last of his toast.

A moment of silence passed between them.

"Hmm..." Georgie replied and set down her mug "the tomatoes are pretty good"

Taking the hint, "You know I've actually decided to take up cooking", Jon said while getting up to wash the dishes.

"Aww, you don't have to do that! It's my mess after all." Georgie remarked with a furrowed brow.

"It's fine helps me focus, besides you wouldn't believe how long ago I actually had to wash dishes" Jon replied whilst grabbing her plate and cup as well

"Now what was that about cooking? The Jonathan Sims I know couldn't even make tea properly"

He smiled "And that's still true, I actually managed to burn water yesterday". "No!" shouted Georgie in mock horror "How does that even happen???".

"Well I was trying to make pasta and then- oh nevermind the point is I've been trying to get back into the whole normal life situation people mention so often" Georgie snorted behind him before coming up to help him dry the dishes "and I figured that would be a good and easy way to start"

"Easy would not be the word I'd use for you mister 'I microwave my tea' " she chuckled, "But I agree that it's a good idea, hell I might even get a not burned meal out of it"

"I literally just made you eggs" he mumbled.

"It took you 3 years to learn Jonathan" Georgie replied cheerily.

She reached over to turn on the radio and they fell into a comfortable silence. They worked their way slowly through the pile and Jon managed to find some dishwasher pods buried under the sink to put in. Slowly 7 am rolled around and Georgie put away the last mug before reaching to refill the tea kettle.

"You know if I had superpowers-"

"Ahem" Jon spoke up, he was sure no one was watching at the moment but still, repeating yesterdays mistake of revealing his nature shouldn't happen again if he wanted to keep a low profile and have the element of surprise to his advantage.

"Right sorry, if I was afflicted with your _condition_ I'd totally chose to be able to make others live longer"

"Whoa what, why? And not everyone has the same ent- _condition_ as me, Georgie."

"Well, it's more about like extending someone's life, like if someone was really sick and had like 2 weeks to live I'd use my powers to let them live to their natural life expectancy."

"Georgie, Death is a thing that exists for ava- for people with similar conditions as me" Jon replied flabbergasted "and that's really not how it works! At least, I don't think it does... " he mused to himself.

"Well, I wouldn't make anyone immortal pretty sure that'd be against the rules or something. Maybe morally wrong? I'm really not sure" she replied and reached for two teabags before topping up both their mugs.

"Thanks. And we don't have written rules or anything. Everyone is just sort of doing their own thing most of the time." Jon said before raising the mug to his lips. Having a guidebook would've been too good to be true.

"Well, I'd maybe do it for the Admiral so he lives to the same age as me. I couldn't bear to part with that little munchkin."

Jon snorted into his cup, "Wait, you’re willing to break the rules to make the admiral immortal but won't do the same for me?"

"You don’t love me like he does"

"That’s true but he also doesn’t love you like he loves me. A true papa's boy right there"

"I know Jon" she replied with some annoyance "are you going to stay for the day? Can't exactly take you out shopping on a Sunday unless you want to do it online and my next recording would be Tuesday so I'd have time"

"No that is quite alright Georgie", Jon said with a smile "we did just pull an all-nighter and both of us need to catch some sleep anyway, although I do admit that that couch is tempting"

"Any you said it wouldn't be worth it! Remember how we dragged that thing upstairs?" she grinned

"Yes, I believe I almost threw out my back" Jon replied with a snort

"You were cussing up a storm so bad that I thought the neighbours were gonna call the cops there for a second"

"Yes well shame on you for thinking two people could lift that thing"

"It looked lighter than it was! Besides, we got it up here, didn't we? How did you get yours up to your apartment then mister?"

"Hired a moving company like a sane person, Georgie" he replied, "though mine isn't as comfortable as yours or as heavy". He put down his mug before continuing quietly "then again nothing in my apartment is really there for comfort".

"Hey... you alright?" she asked softly.

"It's just I kind of realised I ... well, my place doesn't really feel like home anymore, you know? It's not like I ever spent a lot of time there but it's... a lot has happened and It just doesn't feel... right." he finished lamely.

"Oh." Georgie said "do you need help redecorating? It took me a while as well when I first moved in here to make the place really mine, you know? Maybe I can help!"

"It's.. not as simple as that Georgie, others like me know where I live including Elias and I wouldn't want to waste my time on a place I know I wouldn't stay in anyway. At this point, it is more a means for the cause" he swore he felt a light gust of wind brush the back of his neck at the mention of Jonah's name.

"Ah, that's right your creepy boss. Hmm, have you considered moving then? Or like get a hideout or something?" she smirked "maybe we could get a cool Batcave for you, really embrace that creepy creature vibe"

Jon chuckled, but before he could deign that with a reply the sensation at his neck turned into a light buzz. Elias was apparently up early and checking up on him briefly. Either that or speaking his name summons him automatically. Jon was sure there was a reference to a certain wizard related story in there somewhere. He shook his head instead before replying "No I don't think I'd survive the climate, much too cold" with a weak smile "and besides I might not have to worry about that in the future. For now the institute pays for the apartment and it'll have to do".

Georgie regarded him for a moment, picking up his change in attitude immediately, "right well you tell me if you ever need any help with that"

"Sure sure, but I really do need to get going now and catch some sleep, alright? I'll text you later then" he replied while trying to retrieve his jacket as casually as possible.

"Get some rest Jon", she said and reached to pick the Admiral up from the sofa before following him to the door. The way she was looking at him told him she had wanted to say more but was willing to drop the subject for later.

Jon leaned in to give her a half-assed hug after putting on his jacket (being able to use both his hands was still a novelty) and gave the Admiral some pats as well. "Don't miss me too much buddy, alright? I'll come to visit more often." The little scamp cracked open an eye and mewed a "Jon!!!" at him. Georgie chuckled "don't you pretend like you don't get enough attention at home, mister! "

"He's a very affectional boy, Georgie" he chuckled "Alright, goodbye I'll see you later!"

"Bye Jon" she replied and held the Admiral up before doing a mock-voice in higher pitch " _Bye Jooon_ "

Jon laughed and waved back before closing the door behind him and making his way down the stairs. His internal clock told him it was 8 am which he confirmed with a quick glance at his phone and so decided to take a walk before returning home.

London looked... different once he wasn't so exhausted. Apparently getting thoughts astral projected into his mind by a giant Eyeball that fed on people's fear wasn't very good for his well being. There was that ever-present itch to find out, to **know.** He knew better though and figured the brain damage wasn't worth it. Getting knocked out wasn't very convenient either if he wanted to be on guard at all times.

It made him wonder though, was such a thing common? Did other avatars communicate with their entities? Sadly, he had no way to investigate this, even if he could afford to reveal himself and so, begrudgingly, he'd have to drop this train of thought to be pursued at a later time.

Now that he was walking the streets he could actually take the sights in with a clear head. Granted any view that wasn't a ruined hellscape was always pleasant to look at and he decided that he could afford to stop and take in the sight. 

When he walked by some stores he actually noticed how ... filled everything looked, for lack of a better term. Not just with people but also details. The sushi place that had people sitting at booths inside with their phones out and the little sign at the glass window that advertised a buffet from 11 to 13. Or the kebab shop with a word pun scribbled on the chalkboard out in front. Or even the pizza place that made some dang good calzones that you could order in later with their wooden tables at the front for when you wanted to sit outside on a nice sunny day. Ah, he remembered Mama Cali's and Ichiriku Sushi House and how often he went in as a college student when-

Wait a minute.

Jon stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sign of the sushi place again.

Very clearly he could make out the words 'Ichiriku Sushi House'.

But the actual sign was written in Japanese.

Well fuck.

Jon knew that he could understand other languages but seeing everything translated in real life was an entirely different matter. It's like the whole world was more... complete around him. As if previous gaps had been filled in.

The woman that was crossing the street was talking to her mother in Turkish and the fry cook from the Italian restaurant was complaining about his landlord in Italian to his girlfriend and- alright he'd have to stop before he got too engrossed trying to focus on everything and staring at people like a weirdo. It would just make him look suspicious. Especially with Elias full-on staring into the back of his head right now, the creep.

Jon swiftly made his way home and decided that he'd simply deal with that at a later date. Like pretty much everything that was thrown at him so far, he really needs to find a way to avoid Elias' eyes somehow. He had 30 minutes to burn and so after closing the door behind him and placing the keys on the counter, he decided to take a shower before getting some sleep. 

Once again, stepping into the shower felt like an out of body experience and he briefly wondered if that would ever change. Being free of grime had never felt so good and he'd make sure to never take showers for granted again.

Before he slipped into bed he made sure to set his alarm to 9 pm and, once again, as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light.

His dreams didn't come to him immediately, instead of a conscious moment in which everything clicked so to speak, it felt more like he was floating in cotton pads. Very comfortable cotton pads. Or maybe it was mist? Or water? It was impossible to tell really and opening his eyes and trying to fight for lucidity was too much effort at the time. He was beyond exhausted and facing whatever nightmare Beholding threw at him could wait. Floating there loose-limbed was surprisingly enjoyable and so he let himself relax. 

Unfortunately, his newfound ability to be able to tell time accurately left the seconds ticking by at a regular speed and the dream didn't just pass by in a blur. Jon was pretty sure they called this meditating or something.

He'd have to make sure to act normal when the issue of different languages came up. At least he knew which language someone was speaking as well. Boy, watching movies in their original language was going to be fun, Jon thought with some giddiness. Alright, maybe knowing every language was kinda useful he'd give the eye that. Unfortunately asking prying question would still get him into plenty of trouble.

Eventually though, his curiosity won out (as it usually did) and he decided to open his eyes. His first guess of floating in cotton pads wasn't entirely off, around him he could see different shades of white, some light blues pinks and yellows strewn about in an iridescent display of colours. It reminded him of the inside of a seashell, white with highlights of different colours. He was vaguely aware that he had to make the effort to somehow break free of this and inwardly groaned. Though before he could move his arms or even attempt a swimming motion of some sort, he felt himself being pulled upwards. No, not pulled, he was...rising?

When he broke the surface there was no gust of air that greeted him nor was there anything different about what he saw. One moment the comfortable cotton feeling released him, much like a swimmer breaking the surface tension of the water, and the next he was lying on top of it rather than in it. Looking around he noticed that there seemed to be a horizon distinguishing the ground he was lying on from the sky above. The sky had an... odd look to it. He couldn't see through it and neither did it look any different from the rest of his surroundings. Jon did notice, however, that it looked perfectly smooth (although still cloudy) and seemed to stretch on forever. Looking back down on the ground he was laying on, he found that it looked identical to the sight above, except for the reflection of himself.

He was lying on a giant mirror. Pulling his hand up proved to be an easy task and as soon as it lifted several inches of the ground, the reflection of it disappeared into the cloudy mist within. Once he put it back down again it reappeared as if his hand just reached out from some sort of fog. So he was lying on a big cloudy mirror with a limited reflective range? As far as dreams went this one had to be the strangest so far. 

He wondered if he could simply sink back into it. As his hand reached the surface it seamlessly passed right through with little ripples spreading out from the centre as if he just stuck his hand into water. His hand once again felt like it was inside of cotton and there was no real weight to it even as he sunk his arm into it to the elbow.

Alright then.

He pulled his hand back out and rested it back on the surface. There was no real pull to it so at the very least he wouldn't sink into it which was nice. The sight above him, he realised, was a perfect mirror image of the surface he was lying on and if not for the rules of gravity still applying here, he wouldn't have been able to tell which was up and which was down. As above so below, he mused to himself.

Thankfully this was still a dream and Jon remembered from the very few lucid dreams he had that it could be manipulated if one knew what one was doing. Definitely not a nightmare though, he could move in this one. Getting up was still one chore too many so Jon focussed on trying to bring something into view. Normally, if one wanted something in a dream it would pop into existence one moment and disappear in the next as soon as you lost sight of it. However, this time it felt almost... solid? That would be a word for it. 

Jon decided to focus on something simple as a test and decided on a simple cube. When he tried to will it into existence somehow there was no pop or sudden appearance of the object in question. Instead, he watched as a giant surface above him slowly broke free of the mirror-sky above him and slowly descendent towards him.

Okay fuck.

He tried to will it smaller somehow, make it a size that wouldn't crush him once it finished its descend but nothing happened. The cube just stopped.

Jon waited for a second, ready to throw himself out of harm's way (sinfully soft bedding be damned), but when nothing happened he simply let out a sigh of relief. Alright, let's try this again. He focussed on the cube again and, while it was still in midair, it actually started to shrink! After it was about the size of his palm he willed it to stop once more. Ok, now he had a small cube floating above him now he only had to get it down-

"OHHFFF" Jon wheezed out as the cube in question hit him square in the face. "What the hell", he said and sat up. Rubbing at his cheek he looked around and found it lying nearby. He picked it up and noticed that it had the same surface as everything around him. Thankfully his reflection didn't show a bruise on his face which was good. Now that he thought back on it, it felt a little like being hit in the face with wet leather or slapped by a seal or something. 

On closer examination, he noticed that the area where he gripped it with his hand let off small ripples as soon as he shifted his grip. He decided to try and stick his hand in as well and managed to get his entire palm inside before his arm came to a stop. Jon noticed that he could still go further but it felt as if he'd have to work to fit his entire arm in there. In shouldn't have been possible but soon enough he had managed to put his elbow into something that had the size of a Pringles can. A cotton filled, soft pringles can. Jon quickly pulled his arm out as the sight of his arm bot being cut off and squeezed by a tiny cube made him somewhat nauseous.

After staring at it for a while he decided to try and make more and soon enough a bunch of tiny reflective cubes were raining down all around him. Maybe I should try something bigger, he thought. What would be a good place to start? Jon didn't know all that much about architecture but he figured something small would do. A shed, maybe? A gazebo?

A small comfortable cabin came to mind but he discarded that thought before the sting became too painful. A gazebo it was then. Shouldn't be too difficult a roof with legs on it and some benches to sit on. Right then. Jon tried to focus on the image and set his sight on the spot right in front of him. Sure enough, a triangle-shaped roof emerged followed by 4 log-like legs.

Eventually, the structure emerged fully followed by a small bench. if Jon was honest with himself it kind of looked like a 6 year old had constructed it. The shapes were basic and it lacked details but he was momentarily too exhausted to fix it. Apparently shaping once dreamscape was quite taxing, who knew?

He decided to lie down on the ground again as the bench inside the gazebo didn't look all that comfortable. Closing his eyes, he wondered if it was even possible to fall asleep in a dream but he decided it was worth a shot. Maybe he would enter another deeper layer or something if that ev-

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jon's eyes snapped open and he was momentarily disoriented as the sky above him melted away to his bedroom ceiling and he launched himself out of bed with a startled yelp. Lying on the ground panting it took him a while to gather himself and, quite literally, blink the dream away. Eventually though, his bedroom came into focus and he willed himself to relax before getting up. With some disgust, he noted that he was soaked in sweat and a quick look at the clock confirmed it to be 9 pm. He was still borderline exhausted but decided that a shower sounded better than the sweat-soaked sheets. He also noticed that Elias was no longer watching him which he was very thankful for.

When he entered the bathroom he noted the tub that he hadn't used in a very long time. Jon stared at it for a moment before remembering that he had some bath salt stored somewhere and well... he'd have to burn the hours somehow.

After heading out to the living room to grab his laptop and a chair so he could watch a movie or turn on some music or something, he plugged the drain and turned on the water before looking around for the bath salt. After he fished it out, he looked around, wondering what else he could need, when he remembered the snacks he got earlier. 

A quick run to the kitchen yielded some snacks and a cup of coffee that he absently brewed and he managed to shut the door behind him with his foot. He strategically placed the snacks and coffee on the closed toilet seat and positioned the laptop on the chair he dragged in. It may have been unhygienic to eat in the bathroom but he was too tired to bother with eating in the kitchen later. After the tub was full he threw his clothes in the laundry basket and climbed it.

Jon audibly groaned, yep definitely what he needed right now. He managed to locate the salt on the ground somewhere and threw it inside before grabbing his coffee and relaxing back. Honestly, he was living the life right now. It was kind of sad that he was getting excited about some basic self-care but he was pretty sure his shoulders have been stiff for several centuries now. After a while, he turned to put some music and put his mug down.

What an odd dream to have, he thought, usually he was either frequenting other people's nightmares or instantly knocked out from exhaustion. Back then he had been so busy trying to keep his humanity in check and as a result starving himself that there really had not been any time for him to have pleasant dreams. Well, at least this time he could prevent the nightmares. It occurred to Jon that he didn't actually know anything about Gazebos apart from their function and he decided to look up a documentary on the topic. He fished some caramel fudge candy out of his stash and prepared to wait out the 9 nine hours until he had to go to work.

\------------------------------

Eventually, after Jon had somehow gotten to staircase architecture after finishing the gazebo documentary (who knew George Washington had one at Mount Vernon) and several hot water refils to the tub, 7 am rolled around. Jon sighed and pushed everything out of reach before washing his hair quickly and climbing out of the tub. Ugh sitting in one position for too long wasn't a good idea. He put on a towel and carried his laptop to the kitchen after he pulled the plug in the tub. He returned briefly to get all the candy wrappers and his mug as well and went to fish out the hairdryer he kept in his cabinet somewhere.

After 30 minutes he emerged with a dry head and proper hair bun (having long hair was such a pain in the ass to wash especially if it was thick and air drying was just not an option) and went to search for something passable to dress in. The idea of a suit disgusted him immensely (ugh) and he decided on a simple white dress shirt with black slacks and, after some searching in the drawers, a green vest which he remembered he had discarded in the past as not being professional enough. Well fuck that. If Elias had a problem with his clothes he could just fire him. Jon chuckled at the thought, as if he could keep him from the Archives.

A quick look in the mirror showed that green fit him surprisingly well and he made a mental note to get rid of all those brown shaded disgraces he had considered passable suits before. He considered his reflection for a moment before reaching up to it and sure enough his hand passed seamlessly through the surface and felt fuzzy. He quickly pulled his hand out, not while someone might be watching. 

Alright, it was 8 am now (at this point he didn't even check the clock to confirm) and the tube wouldn't take too long so he decided to make a quick egg and toast breakfast before heading out. He put on his usual dress shoes and jacket and grabbed his workbag and keys before heading out the door.

Thankfully he made it to the station on time just as the tube rolled in. He felt a little bit out of place sitting casually next to so many people but he figured he'd get used to the feeling eventually. Jon was wondering how he would approach his assistants without weirding them out too quickly when he got a text from Georgie reading "Wait what did you mean your boss wants you to end the world??? Jon answer me please what the hell??". Oh, right he did say that oops, he texted back a quick "Tell u later" and deleted the messages just in case.

Eventually, his stop came up and he quickly made his way up the stairs. If he was lucky the opportunity to sneak away into the tunnels might present himself soon and Elias wouldn't be a problem then. He'd just have to sneak into his office without being noticed and-

"Oh hey bossman, howsit going?"

Ah goddammit just his luck.

Tim was standing there at the reception desk chatting with Rosie and of course, he was there at the same time as Jon. Damn his punctuality.

"Good morning Tim" he replied and walked towards the Archives entrance. Tim followed him to the small seating area while Jon put down his bag.

"Heading back down to the dungeons, huh?" Tim asked cheerily "Martin told me you got sick on Friday or something, sure you should be coming in to work, boss? Not very professional if you ask me."

Ah that's right Tim used to tease him with that endlessly, when was the last time they had spoken without any animosity between them?

Jon snorted "For it to be a dungeon we'd have to have prisoners down there, no? And I'm not sick just got a headache. Might be all that dust in there" that last part he said with a bitter tone. Having the archives be disorganised didn't sit well with him.

Tim gasped at him "Well well well, someone's in the mood for jokes today. Maybe it's us who're the prisoners have you considered that? Also, the cleaning crew literally went through there after hours on Friday so the dust should be gone"

Jon cursed himself mentally, he'd completely forgotten about that "Yes, let's hope they did a good job then. I'm ready to get that whole mess organised" inwardly the task of organising left him giddy if anything it was always strangely relaxing somewhat.

"Well let's hope your enthusiasm will last despite of the _mess_ ", said a voice near the staircase to the office. Jon barely managed to prevent himself from flinching and instead turned to look at the man in question.

Elias stood at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in his usual suit attire and looking put off as ever, especially if someone was talking about the institute in a negative manner. Jon had never wanted to strangle someone more.

Tim turned around like a child that had been caught stealing candy "Ah sorry boss, just friendly morning banter is all. I'm sure the cleaning team did a good job".

Elias regarded him for a second before turning to Jon "Yes, that is what the Institute pays them for after all."

"I just call it how I see it" Jon replied with some annoyance.

Elias looked at him for a while and Jon realised that he could taste static like a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. The bastard was trying to find something in his mind.

For a moment he actually considered lunging at the man before he had the time to process whatever he fished out of Jon's mind but apparently the Eye must shield him from the other somehow as Elias face morphed into bewilderment for a brief moment. If Jon had blinked he would have missed it.

"Well", Elias cleared his throat briefly in order to play off the slip in his mask "I heard you got sick last Friday, I hope the excitement of reading your first statement wasn't too much to stomach", he said followed by a small smile.

"Pardon?" Jon asked.

Tim looked between them in confusion "What's this about a statement?"

Elias continued "Jon read his first statement last Friday, I'd say that's a good start to grow into your role as Archivist more, so to speak."

Oh, the bastard, how didn't they notice that he was up to something from the start?

Tim snorted and look at Jon "Ah yes, good job bossman. With a capable leader such as yourself at the helm, we'll get the place organised in no time."

Jon knew when he was being patronised and decided to ignore it. He already knew what Tim thought of his promotion over Sasha.

"It was nothing special really, hardly worth acknowledging", he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice and crossed his arms.

Elias raised an eyebrow at him "Surely there must've been some sort of acknowledgement of the task ahead. Surely, It couldn't have just been nothing?" and there was that hint of compulsion in his voice, something that made others tell him the truth and only the truth but Jon was long past falling for such tricks.

"Not really" he shrugged as nonchalantly as possible "I read it aloud and that's it, got a headache sometime after and went home. I mean it's just a slip of paper after all."

Elias looked at him and Jon could see, with no small amount of glee, that his eye was twitching in irritation.

"Right. I supposed you'd want to get to it then" Elias relented "Good luck with the Archives, Jon" he said and walked back up the stairs.

Damn right, Jon thought.

"Now what was that about" Tim turned to look at him in confusion.

"Beats me" Jon shrugged "pardon me if I don't celebrate reading a slip of paper", he said while taking off his jacket. Jon could feel Elias' gaze on him and cursed inwardly, no luck slipping into the tunnels if that kept up.

"Also what's with the clothes", Tim asked while looking at him "since when do you go for vests?"

Jon smiled to himself and turned to walk into the Archives with Tim next to him "Oh I just wanted to try out something new I guess."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think animals have a basic speech pattern like specific names so the admiral can remember certain keywords but annunciate them in different tones  
> ALSO HOLY SHIT HOT JON RIGHTS FOR MAG 165  
> Jon has apartment goals tbh a tub and a shower?? Magnus Institute pays well aparently  
> if the last dialogue seems like it is cut a little short thats because part two will be out later! Jon and Archive staff interactions woooo


	7. Rise and shine mateys it is monday (pt 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Archive the Archive  
> or in other words, Jon abuses his privilege to start a shitty archiving system (for the institute at least not so sure about other archives)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a playlist! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6BT8D7SFAPqHMZBYUjM9qr?si=xahc3W31R8GmpIdqdriazA  
> Or search for ‘tma time travel’ with the Jon icon from the previously posted fanart!  
> 

Walking into the Archives felt as surreal as he thought it would be. The hallway that led to the main room where his assistants kept their desk was worm free and no heavy shadow of horrors yet to come stained the walls. The atmosphere felt dusty as if someone had walked into a long-abandoned library, with a hint of citrus proving the cleaning teams efforts to rid the place of any dust. Jon thought of it as a maw that had yet to close above them, teeth represented by the stacks of files that held dangerous truths in them.

He could see that neither Sasha nor Martin were at their desk, typical as they lived further away and public transit wasn't as reliable. Although he could vaguely remember that Sasha had had a car. Or did she? Any memories he had of her were tainted with the NotThem's influence and the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. Jon was going to make sure she would never be forgotten again.

Tim was in the process of making coffee and called out, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Yo boss do you want a cuppa Joe before Martin shows up? I promise I won't put too much in again", he said with a grin.

Jon snorted at that "You know he said that thing gives everything a burned aftertaste. And I know damn well you drink yours as black as the night."

Tim rolled his eyes, "I bet he's just mad that the damn thing wins out over his tea every time. Too bad a french press would take too long. You want one or not?"

"Who's mad about what?" a voice rang out behind him. A very familiar, yet once forgotten voice.

Jon barely managed to stop his shoulders from tensing and instead turned around as casually as he could manage. At the desk, that used to sit empty for so long before being occupied by Melanie, stood a tall brown-haired woman with round stylish glasses on her face. Jon could have cried at the realisation that that voice belonged to Sasha. The real Sasha.

"Oh, nothing just Martin and his hatred for the coffee machine" Tim responded.

"Ah, well you know what they say, machines will replace us all someday", the woman replied.

She wore black slacks as well as a light blue dress shirt with fun coloured earrings and her eyes were brown, dear god how could he forget what her eyes look-

"Yo boss, you want that cup or not" Tim called out from behind him.

"Ah yes, just leave enough room for milk, please. Thank you Tim", he managed to get out. His voice sounded a little strained but he was quick to play it off by clearing his throat.

"You got it, boss!", Tim gave him two finger guns before using the wheelchair to roll into the small breakroom that used to be a broom closet before they decided to put some a small kitchen in there. Just big enough for a sink, small cabinets a microwave and a coffee machine.

"Oh oh make me a cup too, please!" Sasha called out "I couldn't make it to my usual coffee shop today, damn delays at the station again."

"Aye Aye" Tim replied.

Jon took a moment to steady himself before bringing out an amazingly steady sounding "Delays at the station?"

Sasha dug her keychain out of her purse and put down her jacket "Oh you know how it is with public transit, never on time and all that. Oh man, I didn't even get to order my Chai Latte, I even brought my favourite travel cup!"

"Oh that's nice so you're like a regular there?" Jon asked, feeling a little more grounded.

"Oh, yeah. I used to spend a lot of late nights there back when Gertrude was still around. Doin research you know the deal" she smiled at him "but you would know, wouldn't you mister nightwalker? Bet you didn't even rest properly after that sick spell of yours, just went straight back to research."

Jon slumped in defeat "For the last time, I wasn't even that sick! Just a small migraine, that's all. And for your information, I do actually do other things than just work!"

"Alright lads, here's your daily dose of bean juice enjoy!" Tim said while rolling back in and somehow managing to balance 3 cups.

"Bean juice, really Tim?" Another familiar voice rang out behind him and Jon very much felt as if he'd been kicked in the head. Slowly he managed to glance back at the entrance to the room and there he was, wearing a light blue sweater and his favourite pair of black stud earrings.

Martin.

Jon was struck by the realisation of how young the other looked. Gone was the heavy weight that had once settled over his shoulders and his eyes weren't yet clouded with years of wear from working in the deathtrap they called an archive. Instead, they were a brilliant bright blue and oh wasn't that-

"Oh good morning Martin!" Sasha replied cheerily "Did you also fall victim to London's public transport system?"

Tim looked up from reorganising the cups on his desk and carefully putting in milk and sugar to everyone's taste. It occurred to Jon that he had never noticed how much care Tim took to remember their likes and dislikes. He'd pay more attention this time, it was the very least he could do to make up for everything. Even if this version of his coworkers had no idea what would happen to them.

"I mean what did you expect it is a Monday after all" he finished stirring the cups before handing one to Jon "all of London is on their way to work right now"

"Ah thank you Tim", he said. He really needed to get his shit together before anyone realised he was acting odder than usual. Jon realised that talking back to his boss with a previous history of trying to be as polite and respectful as possible was perhaps not the smartest move but thankfully Tim brushed it off as his usual rudeness.

"Oh, Jon should you be back to work so soon?" Martin looked back at him. How could someone's eyes possibly be this _blue_ \- "You seemed really out of it, I really hope you got some rest"

Jon was starting to get annoyed with how many people have asked him this question today but he just didn't have it in him to be mad at them. Before he could reply Sasha chimed in after accepting the cup from Tim.

"Well according to Jon he does other things than 'just work', so apparently he did get rest", she replied with a grin.

Tim put down his cup after having settled at his desk "Oh really, what did you do? Complete a sudoku during the evening?" he said with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Okay, enough was enough "For your information Tim, I do have a couple of interesting hobbies and my weekend was very fun."

Tim snorted "Nice boss very believable"

Martin chimed in "Oh come on, I'm sure sudokus are very fun"

Jon threw up his arm in frustration "I did not do a sudoku during the weekend!!! They're not even that hard to solve why would I spent an evening on one?!"

"Alright, only one way to settle this let's play weekend assembly! Everyone explain what they did during the weekend" Sasha chimed in " I'll go first I spent the weekend curled up on the couch playing games until the sun came up, Martin go!" and she turned to point her finger guns at Martin.

"Oh erm, I read some books and cleaned my apartment" Martin stuttered out.

"Nice! Very productive!" Sasha replied with a grin "Tim?"

"Eh went to a bar with some friends and did drunken karaoke" he smiled

"Ey party on! Alright Jon, what did you do?" she lifted his eyebrow in an expression of mock seriousness "spill the beans."

Jon chuckled at that "Alright fine, I got some shopping done after work, slept through all of Saturday until my migraine went away, did some cooking, watched a reality television series over a chef that whips restaurants into shapes, visited an old college friend and spent the night there until breakfast after which I went home and watched a documentary on architecture. Good enough for you?" he couldn't help but feel rather smug at the surprised look on their faces.

"Oh I didn't know you cooked", Martin said with a light blush on his face.

"Wait you watched a series of a chef that whips restaurants into shapes? Was it kitchen nightmares, please tell me you watched kitchen nightmares!" Sasha genuinely sounded delighted.

"I did it was pretty disgusting to look at the fridges." Jon replied while making a face "some of these people needed to get a health code violation fine."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Everyone focus on the most important thing" Tim said, "you have friends outside of work?"

"Tim!" Martin said with a scolding tone "Rude!"

Jon probably should have been insulted but Tim was technically correct in his previous assessment of him before. He wasn't exactly the social type. However, this gave him a perfect opportunity.

"Of course", he said while stirring his spoon "my life just doesn't revolve around you you know" and gave him a smile.

"Gasp!" Tim said in a mocking tone "you wound me Jonathan, and here I thought we were close! All those all-nighters spent doing research and gossiping together. I truly thought we had something special! Instead, you go out and see other people unbelievable!"

Jon was more than amused by now and decided to play along for once "Oh please, we both know you have a different date every weekend or so. Maybe I just wisened up to your tactics and decided to set off on my own."

Tim openly gaped at him "Ah my own hybris! What a fool I've been to abandon my dear good friend Jonathan!"

Sasha laughed at him "He just called you a slut and you're just going to take that?!"

"Well its true" Jon replied with some smugness "I mean how many people did you date in this institute?"

"Whoa hey, are you calling me shallow?!"

"Well you do mention how often you go to bars with someone" Martin replied sheepishly.

"Martin not you too!" Tim gasped at him

Jon decided that he could afford to put fuel in the fire (so to speak) " well let's see there's Mary, Susan, Duncan, Thomas, Carrie, Luke...."

"Anton, Lee, May, Jennifer, Ostan, Jennifer 2, Lucy, Jenifer 3 with one n-" Sasha continued

"Guess c'mon no need to gang up on me!" Tim threw up his hands "Alright I admit defeat, can't a guy have weekend hookups every once in a while? Sheesh."

"A pity I was about to list the entire police force as well" Jon replied causally while sipping on his cup.

Martin snorted behind him.

"Ugh, whatever don't you have work to do?" Tim grumbled

Jon chuckled "Sorry Tim, I couldn't help myself. Call it payback for assuming I do sudokus as a fun weekend activity"

"Well it must've been a good weekend indeed if you're that chatty" Tim replied

"Oh yeah whatsup with the good mood boss?" Sasha asked.

Ah right guess he wasn't out of the fire just yet.

"Eh nothing, guess meeting up with an old friend did me some good", he said with a smile "it was nice to reconnect after so long. Anyway, I'll be in my office scrapping together a plan for organising this mess. Knock if you need me"

"All right, see you later Jon" Martin replied

As Jon walked in through the office he could hear Tim ask "Wait did he say he spent the night?".

Jon snorted, it's definitely been a long time since he'd been teased about his interests. Sudokus weren't as good as crosswords anyway.

Right, the archive.

His office was a little cleaner now, unfortunately, that didn't mean it was any less of a mess. Random boxes were strewn about that he vaguely remembered pulling out at random and, much to his dismay, the tiny spider weaving its net, as well as the spiral's door, were still there. Gertrude's key was also still conveniently hidden behind some books, although he wasn't supposed to know about yet, but maybe he could snatch it as soon as Elias stopped staring holes into the back of his head. Truth be told, he could've spent the entire day talking with his assistants but he had never been that social and that would've been too suspicious.

He needed a good system to start organising and although he would've loved putting everything in 14 categories it just wasn't an option right now. He'd have to stick to his first method of sorting everything by date. First, he'd need to sort the true statements from the fake ones and then he'd have to wheedle his assistants into only organising the fake ones. Maybe that would keep them out of harm's way, at the very least they would avoid Prentiss that way.

Jon could already tell which boxes had statements he'd read before in them, based on the slight buzzing he felt every time he came near them. The ones that he hadn't read, however, felt more like a pull and although the curiosity of reading new statements would eventually win out, he'd have to take care of the ones he had read first in that past life of his. Jon crumpled up his sleeves and got to work. If he was lucky Elias would see it as being productive and random- rather than intentional selection.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------

A brief knock startled him out of his haze, he knew he'd been sorting boxes for about 4 hours now, discarding some statements whilst putting away others in a way that, he hoped, would look completely random.

"Ah come in" Jon replied from the couch where he had put some papers down. He had realised that although he couldn't pull out the statements that would be needed, like the Prentiss statement which had been put in a plastic ziplock case or the Breekon and Hope statement as well the Stranger related ones, he could pull out the stack in which they were sandwiched and set them to the side.

Martin slowly opened the door holding two cups of tea "Hey just came in to check if you wanted tea"

Oh lord spare him, those _eyes._

Jon cleared his throat "Ah yes thank you, Martin". He moved to get the cup from Martin, careful not to jostle the papers around him.

"I see you've already started, huh" Martin chuckled awkwardly. Jon could see the slight surprise on his face.

"Ah yes I've gotten ahead of myself a little, but I believe I have a plan for a functioning system. While you're here, could you get Sasha and Tim as well? I think I have enough information to start with." he replied with a small smile.

"Oh eh sure" Martin stuttered out, a small blush covering his cheeks "I'll ehm, I'll get them, just a moment!" and made for the door.

Jon found that way too endearing, but in his defence, it's been way too long since he'd seen Martin and he was feeling lonely dammit.

Soon, Sasha, Tim and Martin arrived in his office and Jon gestured for them to manoeuvre their way through the mess on the floor.

"Okay guys I've looked through some boxes and as we already know, none of them are labelled properly. However, I did notice that every statement had a date on top of it which we could use as a start. If we sort the statements by date we could start with the newest ones first and work our way through them."

Sasha piped up "Why the newest ones first? Why not just go through box by box and work our way through that way?"

Jon was more than aware that he had pulled that idea out of nowhere and that she had worked here with Gertrude and was way more qualified than him, when it came to knowing ones way around the institute at least (none of them had a degree in information science after all). Unfortunately, he couldn't just tell them about the danger of this place, not like they would belive him anyhow.

"I just thought that starting with newer statements would be quicker as they're easier to research. A statement from 2012 is way easier to follow up on than a statement from a couple hundred years ago. Most of the work could potentially be done on the computer or simply writing an Email or calling up the statement giver if they left any contact information."

Sasha and Tim exchanged a brief glance "Well, you're the boss" Tim shrugged and although that stung, it really wasn't Jon's fault that he had gotten the promotion over Sasha, it still made him feel bad though.

"I suppose that's as good of a reason as any" Sasha replied diplomatically.

"Well alright", Jon said with a strained smile "I already sifted through some boxes and found some with recent labels on them, I put them by the door with a small post-it note for each"

"What, already?" Martin asked with surprise.

"Ah yes wasn't that difficult actually, some boxes had dates on them already so that wasn't too difficult"

Truth be told Gertrude probably tossed those boxes in the back because they were useless but Jon wasn't here to bring the archive back into shape. Not while he was trying to free his friends from it.

"I'll be reading some of the statements that already have research material attached to them, although Gertrude didn't exactly organise the place, she did start to record some of them and I think having an audio recording to listen to would be useful"

Jon had already unearthed the tape recorder that had fit into his hands like it belonged there and he was more than ready to get started.

"Alright, we'll get on it then" Tim shrugged and the 3 of them rose to collect a box each and head out.

"When you're done, come back for more I've got several similar boxes strewn about" Jon yelled out behind them which was followed by an annoyed groan which sounded like it came from Tim.

As soon as they were out of range Jon turned to the piles which had the statements he would need in them and got to work. If he remembered right, **'Do not** **open** ' was the next one he had read and if his future plan was going to work out he'd have to read that one anyway.

\----------------------------------------------------------

By the time 5 pm rolled around Jon had read 6 more statements, among those were **'Squirm', 'A fathers love','Pageturner','Piecemeal','Thrown away' and 'Across the street'** the latter which he had hidden away in his desk in a locked compartment just in case he'd need it later. The accompanied useless statements, that he had pulled out, were also recorded, although with less enthusiasm and more for the sake of keeping up appearances for Elias. Reading something aloud didn't take a lot of time, maybe 20 to 30 minutes for each file. However, when it came to statements it wasn't that simple. Jon remembered that he was usually left exhausted for the rest of the week at the beginning and later on only managed to work himself up to one statement a day. But that was then and this time around, limits weren't something he had to be concerned with.

It felt a bit like crunching on crackers, he thought with some amusement. Dry old and stale and usually unsatisfying. They were quite old after all and reading something he already knew, simply didn't fill him the same way. If he was being honest it felt more like a chore he had to do for the sake of appearances (which it kind of was). However, he did notice that the air became almost... electrified? Like you could tell something was wrong and just waiting to make itself known. The spider in the corner of the bookcase was slightly quivering and the small spiral door on the top shelf had gotten longer with strain, almost as if tensing up.

Good.

It left within him a dark curiosity as to what would happen if he simply kept going. Would they be **scared?**

Jon was snapped out of his musing by the realisation that it was time to go home. Damn time accuracy.

He reluctantly made for the exit, leaving the rest of the small stacks to sit on the floor, and noted that his assistants were already in the lobby. They didn't seem all too put off so the effect either didn't extend past his office or they simply weren't as attuned to it yet, which was more likely.

He bid them all goodbye, slightly more chipper than usual, and went for the tube.

As soon as he arrived home he took off his shoes and immediately collapsed into bed. Thankfully, he didn't have any odd dreams this time and when the alarm for 9 pm rang (which he almost shattered against the wall for daring to interrupt his sleep) the feeling of being watched had gone away. So Elias did sleep sometimes, good to know. Getting 4 hours of sleep every day wasn't the smartest choice but he'd have to deal with it until the weekend.

Jon knew that doing strenuous activities would only make him more tired and so he settled for making himself pasta again (this time without burning the water) and settling in for another round of Kitchen nightmares. He wanted to do research on the circus so badly, but without proper rest, he'd have to allocate his energy accordingly or he'd risk tiring himself out.

Much of the week went by the same way, Jon would get a shower before heading to work, say hello to his assistants and Rosie in the morning and go to his office to try and sneakily sort through the statements without putting too much attention on himself. He decided that he would have to record some statements on the computer as well just to seem less suspicious and tried to act as interested as possible when one of his assistants told him about a dead-end or mentioned yet another tale that wasn't true. Jon felt kind of bad about sending them to research these cases, and it's not like all of them were fake they just weren't fear-related, but it was better than seeing them get hurt. ~~**And weeding out the lies from his truths was more than overdue-**~~

Georgie went shopping with him on Wednesday and took one look at him before deciding that she'd do most of the work when it came to picking out outfits for him. Truth be told, Jon was beyond exhausted and his knowledge only extended to sizes and colours when it came to clothes. She also had a better sense of style, as anything casual Jon tried to purchase for himself was always baggy. Old habits die hard, he thought with some amusement, it's not like he could steal sweaters from someone again. Eventually, they did manage to put together a comfortable wardrobe for him which he was more than happy about (it included nice sweaters and oh didn't those feel familiar). She even dragged him to a fancier store to get him better vests (no way he'd wear those damn suits again) that fit him quite well and would've put quite a dent in his bank account, if he ever used his money on anything but bare necessities. Although he didn't get any sleep that day, he did feel a whole lot happier about feeling like a person again rather than just a tool for someone else's plans. She even stayed in the evening to watch an animated movie about some wizard in a walking castle, which he admittedly enjoyed immensely.

For the first time in forever, he allowed himself to relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Badabim Michael time next chapter! Much sooner than in canon but tbh it is necessary for plot related reasons.  
> Oh and guys I love reading your comments! It's like my morning newspaper please leave one if you can!


	8. Twist upon Twist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh whoa here he comes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jon and the Eye watch television  
> Georgie hang out at the spa and a certain someone drops by for a chat  
> I kind of lied a bit since this chapter includes Michael at the very end but it's already 7k so imma post the second part later  
> also finals have been kicking my ass lads

Jon really should have known it wouldn’t last. 

Not that it was his fault really. Before Jane's attack, there has never been any substantial danger to his or his assistants' wellbeing. However, it seemed that not everything would happen exactly as it did in that other life.

The following weeks up until the end of May followed the same pattern; he would come into work and read as many statements as he could get away with, avoiding those that he wasn't supposed to stumble upon until much later like the Circus related ones, and placing those into seemingly forgotten files in the corner of his office. When asked about them, he would simply brush it off as messy paperwork that would need more investigative effort than most and he would deal with it later.

Truth be told, he was more or less abusing everyone's assumption that he was not cut out for the job and perhaps he would've even cared if it wasn't for the looming threat of the horrors, that would ruin their lives if something wasn't done about them.

Jon had managed to read **'Desecrated Host'** , **'First aid', 'Dreamer'** , **'Lost John's cave'** and **'Schwarzwald'** , the Corruption and Desolation were as unpleasant to read about as ever. However, rereading Schwartzwald made him wonder about the nature of the books within the mausoleum. Albrecht von Closen had written in the letter that each had a small open eye engraved on it. Had Johann been a collector or a fellow avatar of the Eye? Where did the books go? Were there any more?

So many questions yet the answers would be difficult, if not impossible, to answer. He knew that the Institute corresponded regularly with other Institutions that collected some form of information and most likely belonged to the Eye as well. Jon wouldn't bother going to Elias, mainly because the other would most likely just make something up and secondly because the man was only 300 years old and wasn't even close to omnipotence (though he sure liked to think that he was).

Drawing further attention to himself so early in his promotion probably wouldn't bode well either. Especially after inhaling statements as fast as he did on Monday, Elias must have noticed something. Jon had been hesitant about reading as many as last time in case his assistants would suffer from horrible side effects (not that he craved the aftertaste of dust in his throat ugh).

And all the while Jon was working in his office, Elias was watching him through most of the daylight hours.

It was beyond infuriating.

He knew that it was his own fault really, he could've ignored Elias and his goading but instead decided to antagonise the man. If it didn't feel good though.

He was curious though, if Elias was wondering why in the hell Jon was not only able to brush off his questions and mind-probing but to also read statements at an alarming speed. He could tell that his boss was at least somewhat nervous by the incessant watching Jon was subjected to every day. How Elias could get paperwork done, after staring at his own employees every day from the beginning of their shift until the end where Jon went home and passed out in bed, remained a mystery. Thankfully the other hadn't tried to confront him about it yet, Jon knew Elias wouldn't be bothered to act unless something truly enormous happened. Lazy ass.

When Jon wasn't working on a plan to prevent the apocalypse, he was watching documentaries. Perhaps it was a side effect of being an avatar of the Eye, but even the most menial of topics were captivating. There were the ones he watched about stairs and gazebos and after that, he got into the entire architecture section and was hooked instantly. Huts and small homes led to chateaux and castles which in turn led to cities and so on.

He never really bothered with watching hours of television as a child, preferring a book in most cases, but with the addition of Beholding any and all fraudulent information in these documentaries, was being corrected as soon as the words were out of the narrators mouth. It felt a bit like he was watching television with a chatty roommate. A roommate which would astral project information into his head but a roommate nonetheless.

Jon also took the time to follow up on his goal of learning to cook and had recently started with the basics. Cleaning and maintaining kitchen equipment as well as safety techniques was becoming more familiar and Jon had even managed to dice an onion into similar sized pieces and with some crushed tomatoes from a can and some basil, had gotten an edible pasta sauce out of the whole deal. It was admittedly rather fun. He made a small list of kitchen equipment he was considering buying (apparently having more than one knife for everything was a requirement) and put it on his fridge for later.

Nightlife held a certain appeal, it was usually quiet and when he walked into the convenience store for some late snack shopping, it wasn't too crowded and the lights weren't as blinding as in the day. Although it was a silly thought, Jon felt a bit like one of those investigators in those black and white movies he loved as a child, that for some reason did all of their work during nighttime and drank coffee in late-night cafes.

One night when the food was done and he had already watched 2 documentaries and really wasn't in the mood for another one, his gaze fell, once again, on the mirror. Although he wasn't all too keen on walking into the damn thing his curiosity was nagging at him. Perhaps some tests wouldn't hurt? If that ability was some new power he was developing or a side effect of travelling through time, he didn't know. However, researching the phenomenon through other means wasn't an option as such things didn't exist within the scope of reality. Or sanity for that matter.

Seeing one's reflection somewhere has always been important to humankind, it allowed self-reflection (pun intended) and awareness of one's physical appearance. Although the latter would explain the disappearance and reappearance of the earring, it doesn't explain why he could pass his hand through it. A mirror may reflect reality and thereby a piece of truth (as much as one can see anyway), but it wasn't a damn place to walk into. Or was it?

So instead, he decided to toss an apple at it and see if it would phase through. Unsurprisingly, it did not.

Jon glared at the damn thing that was hanging in his bathroom and as he did so, it started to draw him in again which gave him an idea. He went to pick up the apple, which he got after another grocery trip after he ran out of snack food and suddenly remembered he hadn't eaten fruit in a while and started staring at the mirror. Almost immediately, the mirror began its hypnotic pull and without breaking eye contact, he slowly pushed the apple against the surface. It didn't give like he thought it would, but instead little water-like ripples formed on the surface where the apple touched it and in one abrupt swoop, his entire hand disappeared inside. He quickly pulled it out and noted that he as no longer holding the apple.

He started to experiment with the mirror every night after he had finished chores (sadly the apartment still had to be cleaned every once in a while) and had made himself food. Jon took small menial items like pens and paper balls and practised shoving them inside the mirror. After a couple of nights, the resistance at the beginning disappeared and his hand passed seamlessly through the surface. He had no way of knowing if he could get any of the items back, but it would be a neat way to dispose of potential... evidence.

Jon got up and stretched after amusing himself with another session of practising to throw paper balls at the mirror and considered his options. He was getting better at controlling it, managing to do so from two feet apart now and had started to slowly increase the range, which unfortunately meant practising to throw as well. He wouldn't put any of his limbs in just yet in case he disappeared inside forever but it wouldn't hurt to get better at the basics before trying new things.

Oh well, practice makes perfect.

\----------------------------------------

Jon usually put off opening his mail after work as he was too tired to do anything and instead just tossed it on the counter and passed out on his bed.

When he finally opened his mail in the middle of the night, he actually spat his tea all over the counter at the sight of the cheque that came with winning the lottery. It was the kind of money that he would usually never consider spending anywhere even remotely fun or for the sake of self-care, but he did promise to make it up to Georgie and so, in a rare stroke of impulsiveness, he decided to take her out for a spa day on the weekend.

So for Saturday and Sunday, he booked them both appointments for the 'Espa Life at Corinthia' which he found out about in an article called 'Best places to relax in London and still be fancy' written by some small online newspaper. He thought the overall design of the place showcased on the spa's website looked nice so he sent Georgie a quick text to get ready for the weekend and dress in something more professional than a hoodie and slacks.

Saturday morning at 10 pm both of them stood in front of the building with Jon wearing his best vest and suit jacket and Georgie arriving in a sleeveless top with long pants and heels and a long jacket draped over her shoulders. The building looked old fashioned yet was clearly well taken care of. Since it was part of a hotel, a small outdoor area for the cafe inside was fenced off from the street and a sign was hanging on the steel fence advertising Diamond memberships.

"You know when you told me to dress like some rich model I thought you were going to take me to a fancy restaurant and not some fancy-schmancy rich kids day spa!!!" Georgie gestured at him wildly her chain ghost earring bouncing.

Jon smiled "Well I figured it was about time I took time to relax, according to a certain someone I look 'grumpy and stressed out'." he said with accompanied finger quotes, "also I believe I promised to make it up to you"

Georgie huffed "Its true! Also if I knew you were going to take me to a spa I would've broken up with you more often"

Jon glanced at her "Really?"

Georgie crossed her arms "...Nah"

"Right", he straightened his jacket and made for the exit "Well lots go in, time's a-wasting"

"How did you even afford this place, not to mention booking 2 days in a row on short notice?" she asked, following behind.

"My secret powers allow me to glimpse beyond time and space and I'm secretly Steve Jobs"

Georgie punched him lightly in the arm and he broke into a grin.

The inside of the hotel had a fancier look and as they walked towards the spa the entire decor changed to a sleeker and more modern design. Black and white Marmor stone made up most of it and the potted plants were green and lush.

At the reception desk, they were led to a dressing room with black stone walls and shiny metallic surfaces and some wooden benches in the middle. By the looks of it, it was connected to adjacent changing rooms and had towels and bathrobes in neat shelves, as well as lockers in which they could put their clothes to return to later. After an attendant had brought them their schedules printed on a pamphlet, they were informed that they had some 30 minutes before their first session started.

"Alright, today we're gonna do a manicure and pedicure first that is followed by the private spa suite in which we can do mudbaths, lunch with champagne and body and bath collection and finally a Purifying treatment which I chose because it was supposed to be relaxing. Tomorrow we can go to the spa which has different pools and saunas and also get lunch" Jon looked up from reading "that sound good to you?"

Georgie stared at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Ok seriously how can you afford any of this that must be at least 1k for each of us", Georgie asked while slowly putting her coat on a hanger.

"I won the lottery"

"Yeah right", she said while picking out a robe and a towel from the stack. When Jon didn't reply or move from his spot, she turned to look at him slowly.

"...Fuck off"

"It's true" Jon shrugged

"You... You won the fucking lottery?!?!?!?" Georgie shouted at him.

Jon winced "Yes it's part of my... condition thing"

Georgie glared at him "We are _so_ going to talk about this"

"Maybe... _after_ we get our pedicures?" he offered weakly and held up the schedule which showed pictures of people relaxing in an attempt to appease her.

Georgie narrowed her eyes at him.

"...Please?"

"Fine", she said while heading towards a changing room "but don't believe for a second I forgot about the evil boss thing" she yelled over her shoulder.

Jon sighed and went to pick out a towel and get changed as well, he should've known she wouldn't have let it slide. Maybe the pedicure would make the whole thing more... digestible.

After they finished changing into fluffy white bathrobes and slippers, which were sinfully comfortable, they were led into a big spacious room with a waterfall on one side of the wall, big tropical potted plants and two cream-white spa chairs. Georgie was busy leafing through the nail selection book after they took a seat and Jon ordered himself a mint citrus lemonade and relaxed into his chair.

"I think I'll get the black and green combination for a spooky look," Georgie said while showing him the book, she seemed to be content to drop the issue until later, which he was very grateful for, and continued with a smirk "and maybe a fun pink colour for the pedicure cause I swing both ways"

Jon snorted "that makes two of us, I'll get a simple polish with nothing else cause I don't care for nail polish"

Georgie grinned at him, "Your goth phase in Uni begs to differ, at least get the black one for your hands! It looks really sick and getting it done professionally will last longer"

Jon sipped on his drink with a huff, "Alright fine, but only the matte, the shiny ones always show scratches."

Soon enough some attendants came by and filled the basins with water and told them to soak for a bit before continuing. Georgie also picked out a song from the offered selection and soon the dim room was filled with relacing rainfall sound. After the attendants left them to soak their hands and feet, and Jon got a refill on his drink, both of them relaxed back into the chairs.

"We need a codeword" Georgie spoke up

"Hrm?" Jon mumbled half-asleep

"A codeword" she repeated, "so you can let me know when...is he watching right now?"

"No, I can't feel his gaze right now, during the weekends I'm usually left to my privacy. Though that might change at any given moment" he said with a sigh

"Alright so we need a code word so you can let me know when it's no longer safe to talk about these things"

"Hmm sounds good I suppose, what did you have in mind?"

"I don't know, like a common phrase or something?" she mumbled "damn these chairs a comfortable"

Jon hummed in agreement and closed his eyes, "How about 'so did you watch the news last night?'"

"Nah, neither of us watch the news"

"How about 'so I've been doing some cooking recently' is that a good one?"

"That could work" Georgie replied, "and let's do 'how is your podcast going?' as the end signal so you can let me know when it stops"

"Sounds good", Jon said, too tired to call her out on blatant advertising, and reached a hand out to get his lemonade.

Eventually, the attendants returned and they got their nails done. Georgie's hands showing a mix of black and green and her feet a hot pink, and Jon's were done short in a matte black. All in all, it had been a rather pleasant experience. They moved on to the private spa suite in which the mudbaths had already been drawn. The room was dark and had a separate seating area which had white walls and was well lit with a table and chairs to sit on. A wall divider with green potted plants separated the two areas and created a lush atmosphere for anyone that got out of the baths and went over to have a relaxing lunch.

"You want to do the baths first?" Jon asked

"Sure, I think I'd fall asleep if I went in with a full stomach" Georgie chuckled

"Mhm same here" Jon was already feeling pretty tired and would rather not risk sinking into the mud completely, based on past experiences it was too familiar of a place to be and, although he could not drown, submerging himself into the mud would most certainly concern Georgie. No matter how much he wanted to. God, he really needed to get a full 8 hours of sleep, or maybe 12. Yes, 12 sounds good.

After some awkward shuffling both of them submerged themselves into the mud and Jon reached over to a small panel in the middle between the two tubs to dim the lights and finally sunk down to his shoulders with a small groan.

"Man I could get used to this" he mumbled

"Same here, we should make this our thing. Now that you're rich you can take me out to spas to get massages"

Jon grinned "Should have known you were a gold digger, ever since you insisted that you were too good for simple buttered noodles I knew you were a lost cause"

"Hey, it's not my fault you always forgot to season them!"

"I used salt didn't I?"

"Boy, you're a lost cause, let's hope the culinary world will broaden your worldview a little"

"For your information, I recently learned how to dice an onion", he said with a huff

"Well you have to start somewhere, who knows maybe in 2 years you'll have moved your way up to carrots" she chuckled "mind if I put on some music? Let's hope they have bird songs"

"Ah yes birdsongs, just what I want on my relaxing spa trip" he drawled sarcastically

He could hear Georgie tapping away at the display before she spoke up again.

"Uhm Jon, why is there a section called 'romance'?"

"Hmm?"

"Jon, let me see that pamphlet", Georgie leaned over to snatch the paper from the stack of bathrobes they had discarded next to the tubs and looked over the schedule, which was fine as Jon wouldn't be moving anytime soon.

"Jon."

"Mmhm, yes Georgie?" , Jon's eyes had begun to fall shut and he was in serious danger of falling asleep but he managed to crack open an eye with great difficulty and look in her general direction.

"What exactly did you select when you booked this room?" she said with an amused expression on her face

"Hmm... the two-person suite, why?"

"Jon that's a couple's special", she said with a grin

Jon blinked sleepily at her "...it said it included champagne and lunch on the website"

"Yes, cause they expect couples to come here for a sensual experience, ya goofball!" she threw up her arms and splattered mud all over the tiles. "That's why there's only one shower!"

Jon took a while to process this information "Oh. Sorry I just figured champagne would be fancy" he mumbled

Georgie was more than amused by his reaction "You know if I didn't know you as well as I did, I'd say this was meant to be a seduction scene. However, the eyebags under your eyes and the fact that you're in the process of sinking into the mud tell a different story."

"Sorry", Jon tried blinking the exhaustion away "I don't get much sleep these days."

Georgie huffed and eventually tipped something in on the terminal until relaxing music filled the room, "I'm guessing it has something to do with your 'condition', c'mon we have time before lunch starts. It's like they say: no time as the present!"

Jon chuckled "That's true I suppose... honestly I don't even know where to start"

"Anywhere really would be alright, I'm dying of curiosity here", she said as she sunk back into the mud "and honestly talking might keep us both awake, cause I'm also about to fall asleep at any minute now. Damn relaxing mudbath."

"Mhm, they sure are comfy... Well let's start at the beginning I suppose, so my job is kind of evil-" Jon began to say

"I figured as much, although you could argue that every job is evil under capitalism" Georgie interrupted

"Let me finish first please", Jon huffed amused "my job is evil in the more literal sense. People come into the institute to give an account of their experience of the supernatural, so to say"

"Right"

"Well it turns out, that reading these statements kind of turns you into a monster if one were to phrase it as simple as possible"

"Alright"

"And my boss kind of promoted me under the pretence that my job was normal, so that he could turn me into a monster and eventually use me for his evil plans"

"Jesus christ Jon"

"Yes I know, but it gets worse." Jon continued with a sigh "every time I read a statement and the statement giver is still alive, I appear in their nightmares to haunt them which is bad for obvious reasons but also really dangerous for me because people recognise me in the waking world and get mad, even though I can't really control it. So I'm basically nocturnal now."

"Wait, but you're still working your regular job then? How much sleep exactly do you get?"

"Yes, and not a whole lot, I sleep during the day on the weekends and do other stuff during the night but a weekday usually leaves me with 4 hours of sleep"

"Damn Jon, no wonder you look like you're about to keel over, I wasn't going to say anything but you look like you just finished a 14-page essay overnight."

"True I suppose college stays with you in some ways, but it beats freaking people out and also I don't want to scare anyone, you know? May I also mention that you're taking this surprisingly well?"

"Well the mudbath helps a lot, and I'm Georgie fearless Barker, remember? Though I do have to say this"

Jon motioned for her to continue.

"What, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart, the fuck."

"You and me both" Jon chuckled "I got used to it though, hardly anything startles me these days"

Georgie began to gesture wildly again "Seriously its barely been a couple of years, how much could have gone wrong in that little time???"

"I've been asking myself that for a long time now" Jon murmured absently

"Also, why is your boss stalking you with, what I assume to be, horrible eye powers?"

"Well here's the good thing out of this whole mess" Jon continued as he slowly began to sit up

Georgie snorted "Oh this ought to be good"

"He doesn't know that I know, at least not yet"

"Know what? What does that matter?"

"It matters because I'm not supposed to be as...well 'developed' is a word one could use, as I am now" and Jon made his eyes glow for full effect "he doesn't know that I know his plans and that I can feel whenever he's watching me"

Georgies face dawned with realisation "which gives you an advantage"

"Exactly" Jon nodded and changed his eyes back to their normal brown colour "if I play it safe and act oblivious I could prevent a lot of the things he has planned without needing to change tactics. If I'm careful enough, he won't change his plans and it will leave me with the best possible outcome"

Georgie nodded slowly "like the world not ending"

"Exactly"

"But how do you know all that in the first place? Is future vision part of your whole knowledge stick somehow?"

Jon hesitated for a moment, he couldn't tell her that he travelled back in time, that would open another whole can of worms "...Sort of. Not everyone else is the same when it comes to these things, as of May 2015 I have knowledge of every event up until Oktober of 2018."

"3 years, huh?" Georgie replied

"Yes, it's not a lot, but still better than nothing" how many things went wrong in just a couple of years he decided not to mention.

A heavy silence fell between them. As the music in the room continued to play, Jon wondered if perhaps he had said too much. Georgie had never been keen on getting involved with the supernatural after her encounter in college, but it was only fair to tell her. He owed Georgie that from ruining any future she would have had with Melanie in that other world. She needed to know, just in case he'd fail again and would need to resort to more drastic measures to prevent the apocalypse.

After a while, Georgie interrupted the silence.

"Want to get lunch now?"

Jon blinked at her and, taking the obvious attempt at a topic change, said "Sure."

"Great, I call dibs on the first shower, now turn around Mister 'I booked us a couple's suite because I thought champagne with lunch sounded fancy' " she joked.

Jon snorted but turned around as told until the shuffling of feet faded away and a distant water spray could be heard. At the very least, she didn't seem to be angry with him and he allowed himself to relax with his arms propped against the side of the tub. He was just about ready to drift off to sleep when a slightly damp foot nudged him.

"Showers free" Georgie said "If you check the shelf next to the cabinet you can find shampoo and stuff, if I could, I'd carry it home with me. Some of that stuff probably costs more than what I spend in 3 months"

Jon snorted "Well I can try a vanishing act, let me call you over once I'm done"

Georgie raised her eyebrow at him "more freaky stuff to add to the list then?"

"Sort of, I've been practising, now turn around, please" Jon got out of the tub as soon as she turned around and dried his hands on the towel before picking up his bathrobe and heading for the shower. The spray was as sinfully comfortable as expected and Jon was sure to take the time and use the products provided on the shelf. After exactly 30 minutes, Jon didn't want to leave Georgie waiting and timed it right, he got out and put on the bathrobe before leaving the shower.

Georgie was seated at the lunch table with her back to him and holding a menu.

"They have Sushi on the menu, wanna get a platter with some fried meat on the side?" she asked

Jon patted his hair dry with the towel and took a seat.

"Sure, fried chicken and that algae salad whatever it was called sounds good." he replied, "What kind of champagne do they have?"

Georgie snorted "I still can't believe you consider champagne with lunch the epitome of fine dining. Also, its called Wakame salad, Jon. I've dragged you often enough to different restaurants in the past, you should know your food by now. They have all sorts but none that I recognise by name."

Jon shrugged "Then just pick anything, based on the price for this place it's probably all fancy stuff anywhere"

"Sure thing, casanova. Pol Roger it is."

Jon hummed and finished drying his hair with the towel. "Want to see my newest horror power? It will shock you so bad it will turn your hair white"

"Lead the way, Sims", she said with a grin "Let's see what my monster buddy cooked up in the kitchen"

"Oh, so we're doing double puns now, huh?" he chuckled

"Oh, c'mon that was classic Barker!"

Jon turned around and led her to the mirror next to the small ceramic basin.

"Pick any bottle on the shelf"

Georgie looked at him inquisitively before turning around and grabbing some bottles from the shelf. "Ok, now what?"

Jon grabbed one at random, a cherry smelling conditioner, and turned to the mirror. "Now watch this"

He did as he had practised many times before in the safety of his home, and threw the bottle at the mirror. It passed through smoothly without a sound.

"Whoa! How did you do that??" Georgie exclaimed in amazement

"It's a new thing I do" Jon shrugged

"Well do the rest then!" she replied and handed him another bottle.

"You know I'm not sure if we should clear out the shelf like that" Jon remarked

"For those prices, we should be able to waste as much shampoo as we want" Georgie replied

"Fair point"

They spent several minutes picking out bottles to throw into the mirror and Jon threw them inside.

"You know I never tested if someone else can throw something in, do you want to try?" Jon asked

"I don't think it'll work but fuck it, why not"

Jon could hear the excitement in her voice and handed her some conditioner.

"I think it may be based on intent? As long as I keep eye contact and aim for the surface I can pass stuff through"

"Alright, let me at it"

Jon stared at the mirror and immediately it started its pull again. "Ok now"

Georgie threw the bottle against the surface and, once again, it passed through the surface.

"Oh, that is so cool!!!" Georgie exclaimed, "Does it work when you aren't looking at it?"

"I'm not sure, let's try it out" Jon turned to the side and waited until the pull slowly faded "Alright try now, but be-"

Georgie threw the bottle and it exploded against the mirror.

"careful" Jon finished with a sigh.

"Whoops," Georgie said, not one bit apologetic "think they'll buy we got into a spat?" she asked with a cheeky grin.

Jon couldn't help himself and started laughing and Georgie joined in as well. A small ding broke them out of it, signalling the food had arrived.

"Alright, I'll try to clean up, you go get the food", Georgie said wiping the tears out of her eyes.

"Sounds like a plan"

Jon went over and thanked the person bringing the trolley with their food on it and hoped they wouldn't be able to see the broken bottle and messy mirror. Jon carefully rolled the trolley to the separate side room and started putting the plates on the table. The champagne even came in an ice bucket which Jon considered to be very tasteful.

"So I tried my best, but I think some of the shampoo is still on the wall, oh hey is that the food? "

"Yup, and a bottle of champagne with an ice bucket"

"Ohhhh fancy, c'mon let's pour a glass to celebrate your new high society status"

Jon chuckled and reached over for the glasses and held them up to Georgie. She managed to uncork the bottle carefully and filled both glasses before grabbing her own glass.

"To us, and our horrible breakup that I finally forgive you for"

Jon clinked his glass against hers "I thought you already did that when I apologised"

"Well yes, but now it's official"

"Can't argue with that"

Jon picked up his pair of chopsticks and started to dig in with Georgie across from him doing the same. The sushi was organised on leaves on a wooden platter with wasabi and pickled ginger separate. The fried meat and wakame salad were on different plates and the soup was put into small bowls for each of them. All in all, it looked really fucking delicious.

Georgie groaned audibly across from him "Holy shit Jon, this is the life"

Jon took a piece of the platter as well and barely managed to hold back a groan himself. "Oh I needed this, it's been forever since I had sushi and this tastes amazing"

"If you keep using your powers we might just never work a day ever again, holy shit this is delicious. Let me try the wakame salad"

It turned out that everything they ordered tasted amazing and soon enough, they managed to scarf down half of the food. Jon leaned back in his seat and sipped on his champagne. Maybe he'd come back to this place some other time it'd be more than worth it.

"Hey, Jon?"

"Hmm?"

"Listen, I'm sorry about earlier I needed a bit of a breather from all that"

"Of course, I didn't mean to overwhelm you I know you don't want to get involved but I'd rather tell you about it than leave you in the dark"

"I... I appreciate it, Jon. Even if some of the stuff you said was pretty messed up. I just need time to process it is all"

"Yeah I get it, are we still cool?" Jon asked trying not to show his nerves.

"Yes we're still cool you goofball," she said with no small amount of amusement "now let's finish that food before its time for those massages"

They managed to finish the rest of the food, this time without gorging themselves like animals, and emptied the champagne bottle as well. It was high-quality stuff and although it wasn't enough to get drunk on, it did take a bit of the edge off. After another staff member came to collect the trolley, they were led into another room that smelled of incense and had to massage tables in the middle. A masseuse came around and asked them to pick out a service and told them staff would be there shortly. Jon went for detoxifying swedish massage while Georgie chose the deep cleansing facial treatment, something about taking care of his skin just didn't sit right with Jon. Just in case it would buy him more time later if he got kidnapped by puppets again. Also getting moisturiser put on his skin by someone else, brought back some unpleasant memories.

They emerged from the spa into the dressing room feeling loose-limbed and more relaxed and got dressed before finally emerging from the building at 4 pm sharp.

"Well that was beyond amazing" Georgie remarked and Jon couldn't agree more "I feel like a baby dolphin, that's how smooth my skin is"

"Same here", Jon said while stretching "pretty sure that masseuse worked out some knots that were in there since high school. Want to take the cab home? I don't really feel like walking right now."

"Sure" Georgie replied

After the cab arrived and arrived at Jon's apartment, Jon hugged Georgie goodbye and promised to pick her up tomorrow at the same time. Finally opening his apartment door, he took care to fold his clothes and put them away for tomorrow instead of falling into bed fully clothed and regretting it later, his head hit the pillow and he drifted off into a dreamless sleep. When 9 pm finally came around and his alarm beeped, he got up feeling more rested than usual and went on to make himself yet another pot of noodles.

A quick glance at his phone confirmed that Georgie was still awake and had texted him, thanking him for the trip and sending some movie recommendations. Jon tucked himself into his blanket on the sofa and put up another episode of kitchen nightmares before settling in for the night.

Sunday happened the same way that Saturday did, except that this time he and Georgie spent their time in the sauna and pools of the spa, which was just as relaxing, and got lunch at the adjacent restaurant nearby where he admitted to not knowing what happened to the bottles they tossed into the mirror and also not being able to retrieve them. This led Georgie to almost choke on her seafood sandwich from laughter and he was quick to pat her on the back before they drew too much attention to themselves. It was rather hilarious that they threw in several hundreds of dollars in the form of body wash into a magic mirror though.

On Monday, his coworkers were quick to comment on his appearance and, when Jon admitted to going to a spa with a friend of his, exchanged knowing glances with each other that Jon still couldn't make sense out of. Maybe they thought it was odd that he started to spend more time with others outside of work but they didn't mention anything. Martin especially seemed to smile a little tighter when asking about the trip which was rather confusing.

Jon didn't dwell too long on it though, he had statements to sort through after all.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

The following weeks were uneventful which Jon was rather thankful for. He was somehow able to be semi-functional on 4 hours of sleep, which he blamed on past habits, and therefore still managed to get most of the work done.

Not that there was much to be done in the first place, he did send his assistants to investigate a bunch of fake statements so the most he had to do was look them over and file them under a section he dubbed 'Not True'. It was admittedly kind of hilarious to hear them complain about yet another dead end or arrive to chat with the person just to find out they did it as a dare or just wanted to talk to someone about a traumatic experience of theirs. Once he even saw Tim get frustrated over some phone conversation that went nowhere and he could've sworn he was about to start cursing the other person out. At least they were cleaning out the archive a bit.

Although Jon was getting used to the nocturnal lifestyle, the lack of sleep still affected him greatly. More often than not, he would find himself taking power naps on his couch or at his desk, much to the concern of Sasha, Tim and Martin. They had noted that he was looking more and more tired ever since his promotion, and Jon was sure they drew their own conclusions, but apart from asking if he was alright, didn't press the issue further. Jon could see the worried glances they exchanged though.

Martin especially took to fussing over him at every given opportunity. Although he never mentioned Jon's growing eyebags or his slightly more tired way of walking, he still tried to nudge him towards taking care of himself. Jon thought it was all rather sweet. Sadly, he couldn't follow that advice no matter how much he wanted too. Martin brought him Tea every day, sometimes even twice depending on whether he thought Jon needed it or not, and Jon didn't have the heart to turn him down.

All in all, Jon actually started getting closer to his assistants. Whatever conclusion they drew about his change of attitude they didn't bring up, and Jon slowly started to spend more time with them. His office door was open more often than not, with the exception for when he was reading statements. Usually, he would wait until the 3 of them left for lunch, after which he'd close his door and begin to read. He managed to squeeze in 1-2 statements a day and whatever atmosphere that had first occurred when he did so, didn't return and none of them seemed to notice it. Or maybe they just didn't bring it up.

Eventually though, he had to stick to one statement a day. Not because he had gotten slower at reading them, but because his assistants had actually started to invite him out to lunch with them. Jon didn't have the heart to turn them down, not that he wanted to do so in the first place but he had used his lunch breaks for small naps during the day to regain some energy, and accepted their invitation much to the surprise of everyone, though they tried not to let it show. It turned out, that the three of them had a small sandwich shop they would go to during lunch, which served anything from sandwiches to salads as well as different beverages.

He could tell, that the whole thing had been Tim's idea and although conversation had been sparse at first, they started to relax around him once they realised he wouldn't try to boss them around or comment on their unprofessional decorum. God, had he really been that stuck up? Martin especially seemed to brighten up whenever Jon asked him a question and also put care into listening intently while offering some tidbit every once in a while.

Perhaps it was because he was too tired to do otherwise, but Jon actually ended up talking the least amongst all four of them. That was fine by him, it gave him a chance to get to know them better and he took great care to word his questions in such a way that they wouldn't be compelled to answer. He learned that Sasha enjoyed videogames every once in a while and that Tim was a pretty decent singer.

Most of the time Jon would eat his food and nod until someone asked him about his opinion or experience on something or other and Jon couldn't have been happier. In the first two months, he had managed to get to know his assistants better than he did in several years and all was right in the world.

He really should have known it wouldn't last.

All in all, what ended up happening was not that he himself sought out the supernatural, but instead, it sought out him.

Much like a shark scenting blood, the spiral showed up to try and ruin any and all attempts of normality in his life.

On the 8th of June, while Jon was reading Lydia Halligan's statement **'Fatigue'** (the woman had declined a personal interview and left in a hurry) the small spiral door at the top of the bookcase disappeared. Jon felt Lydia's exhaustion all too well with his limited sleeping hours and made sure to tell Tim to call the frantic woman and kindly suggest some therapy or counselling. Jon wasn't entirely sure if it was Tim's careful tone or the Archives' compulsion power that bled over anytime someone was 'suggested' to do something, but she had agreed to visit a therapy centre which specialised in insomnia. He wondered if that was enough to prevent her heart attack and subsequent death but at least she would get some help.

Jon's first clue that something was wrong was that Tim told him he had a visitor. Apparently a tall blonde man entered the institute around the same time as him (and of course he didn't even see him come through the front door) and had asked to speak to the Archivist. After some prodding, he reluctantly told Tim to send him in and also seek out Martin for some tea.

Jon's second clue was that Elias was boring holes into his office more intently than before and as soon as the other came in, he knew why. The spiral's trademark was to distort anything it came into contact with, even doing so unintentionally with its mere presence, and as soon as the door closed behind Tim, Elias stare completely vanished. Not that the other wasn't trying, he could tell as much.

Interesting.

When the door eventually swung open, not the same one of course but one that looked just like his normal office door, apparently it would try to be inconspicuous this time, a tall blond man in a big fluffy coat and a dangling spiral earring entered his office.

"Hello, I would like to have a chat archivist"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jon and Georgie going outside and eating fancy food? God I wish that were me  
> also first fucking chapter I called the stuff from ep 168 !!!  
> People are dying and the apocalypse is beyond time limitations so ya the Eye sent Jon back just in time before every human croaked  
> Please leave a comment if you can :3


	9. But satisfaction brought it back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon and Michael give each other psychic damage  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me listening to 169: oh man but my plans... ugh whatever I'm still going to write it  
> PS: if you want hints for what's going to happen in the chapters you guys should read the titles

"Hello, I would like to have a chat archivist"

As soon as the spiral's door closed behind it, it seamlessly merged into his own office door. Anyone who wasn't looking could have sworn that it was the same door all along, yet Jon knew better. It may have _looked_ like his door but it wasn't, he knew that it wasn't. No matter how badly it wanted to trick him into questioning himself. Jon _saw_ it change and therefore it wasn't his door.

Right, Jon snapped himself out of his musing, back to the problem at hand.

In front of Jon stood a person he didn't recognize, a tall blond man with a colourful sweater and a big fluffy winter coat, that didn't match the June weather outside, and a big easy-going smile on his face. Jon had never seen Michael in his human disguise but the person he was seeing now definitely matched the description Sasha once gave him in his dusty office a long time ago.

Jon knew that if he looked, really _looked,_ too closely, the person he was seeing would fracture into something made of shapes and colours. If he was to look at the other's face, the smile would become sharper and longer, and too many teeth would fill the mouth. If he only turned his head towards the free-standing mirror, that he had unearthed in his office weeks prior, the reflection would show the spiral's twisted true appearance to anyone that simply _chose_ to look for it.

Like Sasha once did, before her curiosity and his own denial ended up killing her.

He considered if it would be worth the fallout to just... lunge at Michael. Jon wasn't exactly the strongest but he could try to compel him before the other could try anything. It might save him some future grievance later.

However, for some reason, it decided to play-pretend today and Jon wanted to know, more than anything, as to why it decided to pay him a visit. He knew the distortion didn't appreciate being compelled and so he'd have to be very careful with his wording.

So Jon gestured for it to take a seat.

"Ah yes, Tim told me I had a visitor. Please take a seat, Martin should be here shortly if you would like some tea or coffee." there that wasn't a question and still got the point across. He would rather not get stabbed again.

"Oh tea sounds lovely", Michael said with a giggle that barely brushed the border of impossible. Even from the corner of his vision, the way he sat on the chair didn't look natural, but Jon decided to ignore it and turned his head to look away while pretending to make some room for his unexpected visitor. His best bet was to just play ignorant until Michael left but there was that itch to ask again. He could ignore it for now, but if Michael continued to push the limits just to see if Jon would notice there would be trouble.

There was also the issue that Elias couldn't see him in the spiral's presence which was extremely convenient. If he simply left his office to escape he wouldn't find out why Michael was here and most likely wouldn't get another opportunity to steal down into the tunnels. On the other hand, if he went into the tunnels right now while Michael prevented Elias from looking his entire front would slip and Michael would ask questions.

Ah hell, he'd rather deal with the distortion again than with Elias' emotional warfare bullshit. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't and all that.

"So..." Jon started out, "lovely day we're having today, kind of a shame to sit inside such a dusty place" yes good, that was a normal conversation starter with no questions involved.

Michael giggle again "Oh I haven't noticed... I don't go out the door much. I believe the forecast said it would be rainy today" oh that prick.

Jon felt his tongue tingle as if he had eaten pop rocks and all of a sudden a distant rain patter could be heard from outside his office in the hallway where the only windows were located belowground. As the archive was underground there wasn't much tell to the weather outside except for rare sunbeams, there was a reason Tim called it a dungeon after all.

"Huh, I haven't noticed" Jon replied evenly and continued looking through his papers. Goddamit how was he supposed to play this?!

Right as he put another stack down, he could feel a small tingle at the back of his neck and once again, without looking in the general direction, which had become more and more of a regular occurrence (it's as if he had eyes in the back of his head or something), he saw a small inconspicuous door open up behind the spider that had made its home in his office. Jon hadn't known how to get rid of as he technically wasn't supposed to see it there in the first place, and within less than a second, thin, long knife-like fingers dragged it and the entire web quickly inside without so much as making a sound. If Jon had blinked he would have missed it.

Huh.

Looks like the distortion was not fond of spiders either.

"My, it looks like you've started reorganizing, its quite a mess in here cobwebs and dust all over", Michael replied cheerily "it looks quite different from the last time I was here"

Jon refused to take the obvious bait and instead replied with "ah yes, we've been trying our best to clean out the place a little, it's quite a mess I've been sorting through statements and filling boxes away all day."

Truth be told, although it looked like Jon's system made no logical sense at first glance, he did sort all the statements he came upon into 14 categories, one for each fear. These categories he scattered across the room and also made sure not to file the statements themselves but to take a whole stack of useless statements and cram the true one in between and then put that into a seemingly random corner. His office looked like a disorganized mess but he' have to make due for now. Once Elias thought he started to change he would sort them better.

"Oh my, I hope I haven't disturbed your progress any" Michael said and Jon could see the other was slightly less cheery than when he came in. Wait, was he...pouting? Jon really wasn't good at reading facial expressions (or social cues for that matter), especially not on an avatar of lies. He tried not to look too closely though and continued to rearrange the piles in his desk.

Before Michael had the chance to reply, the door opened and Martin came in with two steaming mugs of tea.

"Oh hello, I hope I'm not interrupting, I brought tea", he said with a small smile.

"Oh yes, thank you Martin" Jon replied kindly which earned him a light blush from the other. Ever since Jon started being more social and nicer to his assistants, that had happened more often which Jon found way too endearing.

"Oh, and who's our guest today?" Martin asked after handing Michael his mug "I didn't realize we let in statement givers for live interviews again" that's because the Archive didn't do personal interviews with the archivist at the moment. Elias had insisted during his interview that it was because Jon needed time to get a feel for the place and they still had to sort through the archive. Jon couldn't help but wonder if that wasn't just an excuse for Elias to monitor his progress more closely.

Come to think of it, other avatars only started to pay attention again because more and more people came in to give their statement to Jon. He didn't know if Elias had purposefully informed anyone of his status as Archivist back in his previous life, but if he did it wouldn't even matter at this point anymore. One more drop into an ocean of horrible deeds Elias had done to people barely made a difference.

Jon was quick to interfere before Michael could try to scramble Martin's mind "Oh goodness where are my manners today? As you may have already guessed from the name tag on my desk: I'm Jonathan Sims, the Archivist. Although I prefer to go by Jon. This is one of my assistants, Martin"

Martin held out his hand politely and Michael put down his mug to shake it with a smile, "I go by Michael"

Jon could see Martin stiffen in surprise slightly while shaking the hand and decided that he needed to interfere before Martin could question why the hand he was shaking didn't feel like a hand at all, "Right, thank you for the tea Martin if you could help Tim out with his stack today that would be much appreciated. I believe he's been trying to reach someone all day today" a poor excuse but it seemed to do the trick.

Martin quickly pulled back his hand, "Ah yes, I'll get right to it! Good luck with the archiving Jon I think I'll also see if Sasha needs help today in storage, I think she's been looking for a camera belonging to supplemental material", he said and left through the office door.

This gave Jon an idea.

A horrible, horrible stupid, and most likely suicidal idea but it was an idea nonetheless.

"Oh that reminds me I still need to file away some tapes that haven't been brought in yet, we've all been so busy with combing through the boxes I completely forgot to do that! The weather outside isn't ideal but maybe we can still go for a walk. If you don't mind that is", Jon said as evenly as he could, he hoped Michael was curious enough to tag along. Dear God, what had he gotten himself into?

Michael's smile got even bigger "Oh I don't mind at all, you know I have some archiving experience myself but are you even allowed to bring statement givers along? Not very professional if you ask me" oh now he's done it, now he's gone and done it. Jon threw away any and all hesitance and decided to just commit to it, worst case scenario he'd have to fight Michael in the tunnels.

"That depends", Jon answered trying not to show his irritation too clearly.

"On what", Michael said while slowly leaning forward to brace his hands on the end of Jon's desk.

"On whether you can keep a secret or not" Jon replied while giving him the most neutral look he could muster.

Michael regarded him for a while, searching for some giveaway or other on Jon's face but he had plenty of experience of bullshitting his way through conversations now, especially when it came to talking to his assistants like a normal person, and Jon knew Michael would find nothing. Looking for something wasn't part of the spirals deal after all, even if Michael Shelley had once worked in the archives, no truth would reveal itself to him. But it seemed that Jon did a good enough job of throwing out the bait and soon enough, Michael leaned back in his seat.

"Sure", he said while giving him the same, albeit more suspicious, look Jon currently had on his own face "lead the way then."

The tea on his desk had gone cold by now (rude!!) and Jon _knew_ with utmost certainty that several hours have passed while they were staring at each other across the desk. A quick glance at the clock on his wall would have confirmed this but Jon wasn't about to let this opportunity go to waste just to call Michael out. So instead, he got up from his desk and walked towards the working bag he always carried around with him.

"Don't worry I'm not about to ask you to help out or anything I'm more than capable carrying things myself", Jon looked inside and silently congratulated himself when he found the small lighter he always forgot to throw away whenever he retrieved something from his bag. It was a small thing he had once picked up at a gas station before he gave up smoking after graduating from college, but it would do the job well enough.

"Yeah sure" came to unenthusiastic reply behind him. Ah crap, if Michael lost interest and left, Jon might not get another chance so soon. He pocketed the lighter and went over to the old wall that held the entrance to the tunnels beneath the institute.

"Now I apologize for any dust or cobwebs, the construction workers are supposed to show up next week to fix the wall up for good and I was planning to retrieve the boxes before that", now that was a lie but in for a penny, in for a dime and all that, "careful where you step, it's quite dark in there"

"Oh?"

To Jon's great relief Michael sounded much more interested now, he didn't know how he would have explained destroying a wall to Elias if the other had left. He carefully found the corners of the thin piece of drywall and, without much force needed, carefully pushed it in until it gave away. He proceeded to lift the large square out of the wall and set it to the side without breaking it. Back then it had broken when Jon threw his mug at the spider on the wall which ended up releasing the worms into his office and he would need to fix it should the same thing happen again. Patching it up later without notice would be a problem but he wasn't going to bother with that now.

Jon turned around and realized he didn't have a way to transport the boxes. Ah dammit, asking Michael would be pushing his luck and he really didn't want to hand over any tapes to the other either. He was vaguely aware that Michael was staring at him while still holding his own steaming (!!) mug but decided to ignore him. His gaze was, once again like many times before, drawn to the mirror standing in his office.

Well... he could transport the tapes after all. Retrieving them later would be a problem though.

....

He would have to burn that bridge when he got to it.

Jon went over to the mirror and carefully lifted it up sideways so he could carry it without the bottom scraping the floor. Thankfully, it was a cheap old thing and not very heavy so that was a small blessing. He returned to the hole in the wall while holding it with both hands and turned to Michael.

"Alright I have what I need, you can bring the mug if you want, this won’t take too long"

Michael was still sitting on the visitor's chair and staring at him but Jon didn't wait for an answer and proceeded to walk into the darkness of the tunnel.

The tunnels were never pleasant to begin with, but being virtually blind while he was at full power made it 10 times worse. The area reeked of dust and the smell of stone, and there were no markers to lead the way or to orient himself with. It felt a bit like having a sack shoved over his head and being forced to find his way out. He did his best to hurry along the hallways he came upon and not stop to look at the different rooms. Exploring could wait he needed to return as quickly as possible, who knew how long Elias' gaze would be distorted.

After a couple of turns, Jon could hear footsteps behind him, Michael must have caught up to him after all, but decided not to start up another conversation. He needed to focus if he was going to find the room he was looking for anytime soon and hopefully Leitner hadn't changed the layout. Or maybe the way he once knew in that other life was created after Leitner had changed it? Too many questions to which Jon didn't have the answers and he sincerely hoped he would get another opportunity to return again to find the man.

And also maybe chew him out for causing so many problems in the first place. Or maybe yell at him, yes yelling sounded much better.

Soon enough, Jon came upon a familiar turn and entered the room he was looking for. It was too dark to get a good look at details, but Gertrude's body was recognizable even without a light source.

Come to think of it, anyone that had entered the tunnels always needed some source of light to navigate them. Hell, even he remembered bringing a flashlight to light the way and yet he could see perfectly. Maybe it was his eyes again, Jon was pretty sure they were glowing, but he couldn't dwell on it for long if he wanted to leave the tunnels as quickly as possible.

"Just a moment", he offered to the space behind him.

Michael hadn't said anything the whole time and Jon wasn't about to make him either. Let him draw his own conclusion as long as Jon got those tapes and not end up face to face with a reanimated version of his predecessor, it would all be worth it. He went over to the stack of boxes and placed the mirror down before reaching to pick one up. There were at least ten of them and Jon was quick to focus on the surface of the mirror until it started to pull him in again. He really should find out what exactly it did and why he needed to wait until he could utilize it. Was it like a frequency? Maybe a wavelength?

Whatever it was, Jon would have to decide on better terminology later. He held the box to the surface until it started passing through and quickly shoved it inside. Michael in the meantime had come to stand in the entrance of the room, still holding his damn hot mug of tea, and was staring at him. Jon continued to ignore him and quickly went over to the next box to put in the mirror as well. After some huffing on Jon's part, he managed to throw all the boxes inside in less than 5 minutes, which was quite the feat.

He leaned on his knees for a moment to catch his breath before straightening up and picking up the mirror once more.

"Man I really need to work out", he said while handing over the mirror to Michael who seemed to be rendered speechless, "here hold this and move back out of the room, this next part shouldn't take long either".

Jon quickly retrieved the lighter out of his pocket and went over to the lifeless figure slumped over a chair in the middle of the room.

"Sorry about this but I'd rather not take any chances", he held the flame over the blood-stained blouse until it caught fire "if its any consolation this is probably how you would have wanted to go out in the first place. Although I'm going to treat my assistants much better than you ever did."

The body was quick to catch fire, having been inside a dry lightless place for several months had started the mummification process and Jon was sure no piece of skin would remain intact for Nikola and her band of murderous muppets to use for their ritual. Now Jon would only have to watch out for his own hide.

He returned to Michael who seemed to be rooted to the spot where Jon had left him in, still holding on to the mirror he was handed, and staring at the burning corpse of the previous archivist that was burning quickly.

"Come on, we should hurry before the smoke spreads out, we might make it out in before 20 minutes have passed", he said nonchalantly, as if commenting on the weather or discussing sports.

He retrieved the mirror from Michael, which was thankfully still light, and grabbed the other by his free hand to drag him out of the tunnels in a half sprint. True to his word, they made it out of the tunnels in no more than 20 minutes, which Jon confirmed with a quick glance at the clock. He moved to carefully place the piece of drywall back to its previous spot. It wouldn't stay up by itself though, so Jon quickly moved to put the mirror in front of it which would hopefully keep the whole thing in place until he'd find a permanent way to fix it.

Or maybe he would just glue a motivational poster over it or something.

"Wheeeeeeeeeeew", Jon let out in a huff before turning to smile at Michael, "thank you so much for coming along, I really appreciate it!"

Michael was still staring at him, mug still in hand.

"Hey, if you ever want to exchange favours or are up to a deal my door is always open", Jon continued. Nice, and he even managed to include a pun this time!

That seemed to snap Michael out of his stupor, "what kind of deal?"

"Oh you know the classic you scratch my back I scratch yours situation" Jon replied cheerily, apparently the adrenaline rush wasn't working in his favour right now and he should really stop talking- "maybe we can work something out that is beneficial to both of us"

His heart was pounding like crazy but he wasn't out of the frying pan yet.

He went over to the shelf and quickly pocketed the small key Gertrude had hidden behind some bookshelves that would open the storage unit for the C4, "Oh during all that excitement I forgot to ask, what exactly did you want to talk about?" Oh shit, that was a question, why didn't he keep his mouth shut?! Maybe he could try and throw his office chair before Michael had the time to stab him and make a dash for the door.

Thankfully Michael didn't seem to be in the mood to stab him today, "Oh I just wanted to introduce myself, I'm new in the neighbourhood", he replied dryly and stared at Jon with what seemed to be an... accusing, maybe bitter tone?

Jon was struck with the realization that Michael had most likely expected to be asked that at the beginning and probably planned to follow up on that. There were no houses around the institute, only other businesses or administrative buildings and there was no way that Michael didn't know that.

Instead of calling him out on it though, Jon smiled and held out his hand "Well, welcome to the neighbourhood then Michael, if you're as good at keeping secrets as you say you are I certainly hope to see you around more often"

Ok, _now_ Jon could see the annoyance on Michael's face clear as day.

"Sure", he gritted out and briefly shook Jon's hand before snatching it back with a huff.

Jon didn't comment on the behaviour though and turned to look at the clock, "Oh look at the time! It's already half past 5, I really didn't mean to keep you here so long!" like it was his fault the other had distorted his feeling of time but Jon wanted to get out of the situation as quickly as possible so he could go have a breakdown at home.

"Come on, I'll walk you to the entrance, the others have already gone home by now"

Michael grumbled behind him and Jon went over to his desk to grab his bag and jacket before walking over to the door and holding it open for Michael with a smile.

"After you!"

Jon watched as Michael went through the door and followed after closing it behind himself. Neither of them talked, although Jon was humming a little tune on the way to the entrance and, as both of them left through the doors of the institute, he cheerfully waved Michael goodbye before heading for the station.

Jon spent the ride home shaking with adrenaline and nervousness, waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Michael to jump out of the shadows and gut him like a fish for daring to abuse his presence in his favour. Nothing happened though, and Jon managed to return home without a scratch and Gertrude's key safely tucked away in his bag and the tapes no longer in the tunnels.

By the time he took off his shoes and collapsed onto the bed, he broke into a manic fit of giggles. Oh dear lord, he could only hope Michael wouldn't take it personally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Narration: Michael did in fact, take it very personal  
> Spiral 0, Archivist 1.  
> also yall are so nice T-T I always worry that I write too much about not plot-related stuff because I want Jon to have nice things for once and I'm really glad people liked it! Everything up to chapter 8 was for Jon to basically just settle in and deal with being thrown back and NOW we got into the first execution of his plans and also subsequent changes to the narrative  
> 


	10. Tuesday again? No problem (?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cranky because you haven't had any prophetic dreams to aid you on your quest, huh archivist?  
> also, remember that one episode where the archive crew had to interview people without Jon there and it was a disaster? That's basically the entirety of this au's season 1

Despite his anxiety, Jon managed to fall into a deep slumber as soon as his breathing evened out. Being chronically sleep-deprived did not him allow him to stay up any longer, no matter how badly he wanted to. Unfortunately, his alarm clock rang too soon, a sound he had learned to hate over the weeks, and he barely managed to force his eyes open.

After that one dream in the reflective world, Jon hadn't had another dream since. Although it was a relief, since it meant he wasn't occupying someone's nightmare, it also meant that the next day arrived much quicker. Nowadays he felt as if he'd simply lied down for 5 minutes with his eyes closed just to hear the alarm ring the next moment.

Jon tried to blink the exhaustion away and blearily reached for the blanket he had neglected to throw over himself after arriving from work. He slung it over himself in a half-assed attempt at comfort. Though he'd gotten used to sleeping in his clothes by now, a blanket was always better. Even though it wasn't as good as the weighed one they had at the safe house.

Fortunately, he didn't fall asleep again, once he was up and awake he'd have to exhaust himself before passing out, but dozing there surrounded by warmth was also nice. It was raining outside and the soft noise against his window managed to smooth out whatever tension he had left in him from snapping awake. It felt like he was forgetting something though...

Oh well, it could probably wait until next morning.

...

...

wait...

All of a sudden the panic slammed back into his chest and his breathing sped up. Michael! Oh god, how could he forget about Michael?!

Jon wasn't sure if he should cry or laugh again, but the stone-cold fear in his chest froze him in place. How could he have been so stupid?! He had gotten a second chance at fixing everything and he managed to blow it! The whole point of his plan was to remain inconspicuous and instead, he went ahead and messed with the distortion. Making rational decisions wasn't something Jon was known for, especially not when he was sleep-deprived, but this one had been especially risky. Ugh, he should've kept his mouth shut and just played ignorant until Michael left.

Jon's mind provided him with images of Michael storming into his apartment and cutting him to ribbons with his sharp hands for daring to abuse his powers for his own gain. Who could he even turn to for help? Georgie was an option he wasn't even willing to consider and there was no way Jon would expose his assistants to any dangers just to save his own hide.

Not even his own apartment was safe, he knew that much, and it occurred to him just how little escape paths it had and how vulnerable of a position he was in just sleeping here when anything could storm in and take him off guard. Just as a cold sweat had settled on his skin, Jon heard the soft chime of a message on his phone.

After grasping around the bed, he managed to pull it out of the folds of his blanket and squinted against the bright onslaught of light from the screen. A notification informed him that Georgie had texted him and a quick glance showed that it was 11 pm in the evening. Maybe she was up to edit an episode for the podcast? Her schedule changed every so often, depending on when she recorded and how quickly she started on the editing. It looked like she may have procrastinated again and had to stay up late to make the deadline. Either that, or she was stuck in another gaming session.

Most likely the latter though, as it was Monday night and the thought of going back to work the next morning left him groaning into his pillow. Maybe he could call in sick? To Jon's knowledge, he had never taken a day off for health reasons before, unless one counted the mandatory leave Elias forced him on whenever something attacked the archive, but it wasn't like Elias could fire him anyhow and Jon didn't exactly need the paid bonus anymore. In fact, if he kept sending in lottery tickets he might just be set for life 20 times over and still have enough to buy anything he wanted. What did people do again when they were loaded? Invest? Should he invest in stocks? If so how would that work, would he need a lawyer or something? Jon was an English major, having studied English Language and Literature at Oxford, and therefore didn't know the first thing about economics and business. Hell, learning to do his taxes had been a trial.

Another soft chime informed him of another message from Georgie and he shook himself out of his musings to swipe it open.

G: "What's up nightwalker, guess who just crunched a bunch of people online!!! Also, the stink man says hello"

Ah, gaming session it was then.

J: "You, I'm guessing? And don't call the Admiral that"

G: "Hell yeah! Not my fault he smells >:D "

Jon smiled despite himself. He knew she didn't mean these things in a mean spirited way but it wouldn't hurt to treat the Admiral with the respect befitting of his status.

G: "Anyway what's up, how's the nightlife treating you"

J: "Just woke up recently, I've been dozing and thinking how something could just show up at my flat and kill me. Apart from the sleep deprivation and the resulting chronic fatigue, I've been doing alright"

G: "Cool cool. Why tho? Is your apartment also haunted? If so, I know some people that would be willing to cut you a deal"

Jon snorted at that, there was no way he would let Melanie and her crew inside his home.

J: "well, you know what happens when I don't sleep very well, or rather not at all?"

G: "Yeah, you make irrational decisions that always end badly for you, like that time we went to the bar and you insisted on doing shots"

J: "..."

G: "... wait, what did you do? "

J: "well I... I kind of maybe angered one of these monsters I was telling you about and he may show up at my place to kill me for revenge?"

G: "why would you do that?!?!?!?? Jon what the hell I thought the plan was to stay under the radar!!!"

J: "I know but I had an opportunity to prevent some stuff from happening and I decided the wisest course of action was to just... well go for it, as you like to say"

G: "That's not applicable for monsters Jon!!!!"

G: "Alright, pack your bags."

J: "Whoa what, why?"

G: "You're staying at my place, it's safety in numbers, we can figure out a plan on how to kill it from there"

There was no way Jon would endanger Georgie or the Admiral by staying at their place again, he was done running.

J: "No Georgie, it's fine I'll figure something out, he's usually not violent until provoked maybe we can cut a deal"

G: "Yeah right, just walk up to him and ask really politely like that's going to work"

J: "Georgie, it's fine I can just move or something I've been planning to find a new place for a while now, my current living situation isn't the safest anyway. Others will figure out where I stay anyway and moving to a more secure location has been on my list for a while, I even know an agent"

Whether she would agree to show him around or not was still up in the air though, he might need to put on a fancier suit to match her usual cliente.

G: "Would that even work? You can just be left alone by leaving? Seems fishy to me"

J: "Oh trust me, minding your own business has saved lives before", Jon thought about Joshua Gillespie and his approach towards the coffin and wondered if the same principle would apply here. Hell, others have done so before. Maybe Michael would just get tired and wouldn't be bothered to chase him? Then again, he could just open another door elsewhere.

G: "Not like you would know"

J: "Ouch"

G: "Seriously, do you really think that will help? I'd rather you don't die while painting your new walls"

J: "It'll be fine, many others have had similar domains and it's not like I'll be leaving this apartment. It'll be like a backup place where I can stay when my current apartment becomes compromised"

G: "Alright there, Bruce Wayne. How do you plan to secure your new Batcave? Occult symbols? Dead bodies? Doodling Eyes on the walls"

J: "Georgie..."

G: "What? It's a valid question, besides how do you plan on having a secret hideout without your boss finding out? If he's stalking you with his eye powers how do you know he won't just... go ahead and rat you out if it benefits his evil plans?"

Jon hadn't even thought of that, he didn't even know if Elias was behind most of his meetings with other avatars. He knew he had sent Jared, but what about Jude? The cult of the lightless flame had once protected Gertrude, what if Elias was behind their meeting? Or what about Oliver? Had he only shown up because Elias somehow convinced him too?

J: "That's a good point... I might be able to solve that problem though, as for the house, I suppose I'll just have to research possible wards or something"

G: "Draw an Illuminati eye on the floor"

J: "Georgie."

G: "What? What other options could you possibly have? Oh and also I call dips on throwing you a house party when you move into the new place!"

J: "That's very kind of you Georgie, I don't even know how to decorate the place, I might have to spend some time researching colour palettes or something"

G: "My advice is always: Minimalism sucks and it should feel like a home"

J: "Wow thanks"

G: "It's true! If I see a single white surface without random things plastered on top for your own enjoyment I'll consider you a lost cause! Like put library shelves there or mirrors or whatever oh and choose a good kitchen!!! If you're rich you should definitely invest in a good kitchen"

J: "Ah yes, the height of luxury, a good kitchen and putting stuff you like on top of shelves"

G: "What more do you need in life? Also if you put any occult symbols in at least try to hide them, like make a stone with an eye and put it behind the wall where no one can see it or something"

J: "I'll consider it, sure you're not just living out your own fantasies?"

G: "Gasp! How dare you insinuate that?! Can't a woman offer her good friend some very specific decoration advise?"

J: "Uhuh"

G: "also get good salt shakers, the funny kind. I got those once that look like cats, best investment I ever made"

Jon snorted at that.

J: "Thanks I'll remember that, would you perchance be interested in joining me on the house viewing tour?"

G: "Of course! Someone has to prevent you from moving into a haunted mansion, I've got a nose for these things believe me"

J: "Thanks Georgie, I appreciate it"

G: "Alright batman, I've gotta go and hit the hay for the night, take care of yourself and don't get murdered please"

J: "Thanks Georgie, say hi to the Admiral for me"

G: "Will do!"

Jon put his phone away and slowly rose from his bed, it was 00:30 which meant it was time for another attempt at making food. Michael didn't show up and as it was past midnight already, that meant the witching hour had passed and a disturbance later would be unlikely. Or at least, that's how Jon imagined this whole thing worked. He went into the kitchen to get started on some chicken alfredo and made a mental note to look up house decorating tips online later. Now where in London could he buy a house?

\---------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday morning Tim was busy brewing more coffee for the others while Sasha and Martin were gathered around her desk discussing a statement. Some people had come in about a year ago raving about a ghost they saw during their 'camping trip' to a warehouse and Tim could already feel his future frustration. He carefully balanced the cups on a tray, one for Sasha with milk, one for Jon with milk and extra sugar and a regular one for himself. Martin was still adamant about it being bad for their health but at this point, they all needed their daily dose of caffeine to get through the day. Hell, Jon already looked like he hadn't slept in a week and took his coffee sweeter and sweeter and Tim himself could feel his face gaining crows feet from the stress of working on the statements.

He made his way to the desk and carefully set down the tray before pulling a chair up and joining them. Ever since he got promoted, Jon had made it a habit of his to stop by every morning at their desks and discuss the workload before moving to his own office and doing his own research on god knows what. Tim would've called him lazy if it wasn't for the enormous piles that were scattered around his office.

"I just don't get it! I've tried talking to this guy over the phone and he just refuses to say anything else on the matter! He just keeps cycling back to how the ghost looked! I need a location at the very least!", Sasha complained while shuffling through the papers on her desk.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to get in trouble for being there?", Martin chimed in.

"What for? It's not like we'll rat them out to the cops", Tim replied, "At this point, there might be some truth to Jon's theory about drugs, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get super high at some abandoned warehouse and had a really bad trip or something."

"Or are lying about it for cloud", Sasha grumbled, "Speaking of Jon where is he? It's already 10 past 9, he's usually on time"

"Ooof not very professional if you ask me", Tim replied with a grin, "Probably overslept at his 'college friends' place or something"

"Tim!", Martin replied indignantly, "don't spread rumours about people please, that's very rude"

"What? I'm not spreading rumours! Just drawing conclusions based on facts that's all.", Tim replied with a grin.

"Speaking of drawing conclusions, do you guys know why Jon has been looking like the living dead lately?", Sasha asked, "I've noticed that, with the exception of lunch, he's been spending more and more time in his office. And it doesn't look like he gets any rest even when he comes in the next morning"

"Maybe he's just working hard?", Martin offered, "I mean his office is full of paperwork and I've noticed he looks into new files every day"

"Could be", Tim said whilst leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head, "now that you mention it, he's been doing a lot of research, though I've never seen him follow up on anything"

"Maybe he also works on his laptop? If we're all looking into the newer cases first, he could probably do his research from his office", Martin said.

"True but I've not heard him make any phone calls at all, then again he's probably the E-mail type anyway", Sasha snatched out a file from her desk, "Makes you wonder though, if it wasn't for the eyebags I'd hazard a guess that he's been shirking his duties"

Tim snorted, "Yeah right like Mister prim and proper ever forgoes doing work. Honestly, I'm surprised he has a social life outside of work"

"You're just jealous that he has a best friend now", Sasha replied playfully, "now that he has someone else you've lost your gossip buddy"

"Hey!", Tim replied indignantly, "I'm still his gossip buddy! If anything this college friends of his made him loosen up a little"

"Yeah, they accomplished more in a single week than you have in years", Sasha continued with a shit-eating grin, "why, he's even heading out to lunch with us and socialising more. Now that's a miracle if I've ever seen it"

"Well, at least he's having fun", Martin said with a sad sigh.

Tim and Sasha gave each other a look.

"Aww c'mon I'm sure he's just catching up with an old friend for old times sake", Sasha said kindly.

"Yeah, Jon just has a hard time warming up to people", Tim said while rubbing the back of his neck, "I mean it's already getting better, isn't it? The first time at the archives he called you useless but now he's coming with us to lunch and even making conversation. That counts for something, right?"

Sasha gave him a kick under the table.

"Give it a while", Sasha continued, "I know crushes can be hard"

Martin winced, "Am I really that obvious? I suppose you're right, maybe we're just reading into it too much.",He looked down on the desk, "Jon barely talks about himself outside of work, maybe he takes all of his friends out to the spa and spends the night over at their place"

Tim stopped rubbing his ankle and exchanged another look with Sasha, "well in any case, he's definitely late today, let's go work on those files, yeah?"

"Yeah, alright", Martin said quietly and headed towards his desk. 

"Well catch up during lunch, alright Sash?", Tim asked before heading back to his own desk.

\-------------------------------------------

When Jon arrived half an hour later than usual to work he made a beeline for his own office. Or at least he tried. Sasha managed to catch his attention and handed him a slightly lukewarm coffee mug which he gladly accepted. He tried making small talk but she must have seen that he was on the verge on keeling over and eventually he wished her luck on her newest case before hurrying towards the door.

Unfortunately, on top of missing his train and also being more exhausted than usual from worrying all night, the universe decided to throw another wrench into his plans. In front of the door waiting for him, stood Elias.

Well shit.

"Good morning Jon", the other said while regarding him calmly, "I would like to have a chat in my office, if you may."

Jon very much wanted to do anything but, but it's not like he had a choice.

"Sure", he replied tiredly, "lead the way."

Elias nodded before turning to head up the stairs to his office and after some shuffling on Jon's part to carry his jacket and bag in one hand and the coffee in the other, he turned to follow.

When they arrived, the other opened the door for him before gesturing inside and Jon made for one of the chairs across Elias' desk and put his bag and jacket on the other. If Jonah wanted to scold him for being late so be it, Jon would not be intimidated.

"I've heard you made some progress on the filling system", Elias offered when he settled down into his own chair, "how is the archive treating you?"

Jon had never noticed it before, but there was that slight taste of static in his throat again, it seemed the other had managed to find a way to work a small degree of compulsion into his sentence and Jon wanted to wring his neck for it.

"Fine I guess", he said while sipping on his coffee, "there's still a lot left to file and organising the rest will take a lot of time."

Elias nodded and clasped his hands on the desk before regarding him again. Jon could feel him looking for something within his head but based on the others grim expression he wasn't able to bypass whatever barrier protected him.

"Right, I've also heard that we had a visitor in the archive recently", more like he spied on them, the creep, "which is rather odd, considering we don't do personal interviews at the moment."

Ah, there was that accusing tone of his again, but Jon was in no mood for games today.

"He said he was a neighbour or something", he replied with a shrug before taking another sip from his mug and mirroring the others unimpressed expression, "said he wanted to introduce himself to the neighbourhood."

The other squinted at him suspiciously, "a neighbour?"

"Yeah, I think he meant as in fellow business owner or something like that, maybe he runs a restaurant nearby?", Jon continued with a shrug, "Oh, and he said his name was Michael."

"I see", Elias hummed as if deep in thought, "did he say what he wanted?"

"Not really, we talked about the weather and the archives a bit, but he said he might come to visit more often", Jon continued nonchalantly and leaned back in his seat.

He knew that there wasn't a single lie in his story and therefore Elias couldn't call him out on anything, and besides, it wasn't his job to share information, just to store it. If Elias wanted something he’d have to look for information elsewhere

"I see", replied Elias dryly, "I suppose that's all then?"

Jon made a noncommital humming noise in response without breaking eye contact. No response didn't count as lying either.

"Very well", Elias continued and Jon saw that small twitch of irritation in his right eye again, "that is all, thank you, Jon."

"Sure", Jon replied with a shrug before making to grab his stuff and heading for the door.

"Oh and one more thing."

He turned around with his hand on the handle to look back at his boss still seated at his desk.

"Do try to pace yourself, I can't have my archivist keeling over from exhaustion."

Jon levelled the other with an unimpressed look, "I would but, it's not my fault the previous management was so negligent.", and turned to walk down the stairs after closing the door behind him with a soft click.

What an evil bitch, Jon thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yall ever remember that Jon studied at Oxford with Georgie? Cause I sure do.  
> Also, the mental image of Jon managing his stock portfolio at work while Elias looks on in confusion is hilarious. Probably won't happen tho, probably  
> PS: i tend to fix small grammar issues later in the day or whenever I come across them so if the writing seems a bit odd it’ll probs be fixed later


	11. Tuesday again? Big problem! (pt 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon does research on house hunting, the assistants are doing some snooping and Jon makes himself some midnight cereal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of last chapter aca it's still Tuesday my dudes

Tim was pissed.

The man who went 'camping' with his friends had still not given up any information on the warehouse they were in. If it existed at all that is. He'd taken to looking up the guy's Facebook profile, fittingly named Richard 'Dick' Stevenson, and was scrolling through photos from around the time the incident allegedly occurred.

There were a lot of drunk party pictures and Tim was beyond done with the whole thing. After finding a photo of Dick's friends at some party with all of their profiles linked, he gave Martin half of the names to search through while he himself focussed on the other half.

At one point, he saw his boss coming down the stairs and walk into his office looking pissed as all hell and then slamming the door behind him but didn't want to disturb the man while he was in such a mood. Besides Jeremy McConnor and his photos of his many hookups were taking up most of his attention. Across from him, he could see Martin looking as tired as he himself felt and he could hear Sasha still grumbling about the location from her desk. She was apparently looking up warehouses around the area and searching for potential ghost sightings.

Tim had to admit defeat when he found Jered Loneel, yet another of Dick's friends, doing a line of coke around his friends about a year ago. Maybe Jon was right and drugs were the main culprit behind the supposed 'ghost'.

"Ah screw this", Sasha threw up her hands and swivelled around to face him, "I've looked up every warehouse that might be related to ghost sightings and not one occurred in the last 10 years, this is bullshit!"

"I'm not having any luck either", Martin said looking up from his screen, "all I'm finding is a bunch of guys drinking themselves to death at some club and vomit pictures. Lots of vomit pictures actually it's really gross."

Tim made a face at that, "Oof, all I have are Dick and his friends doing coke off of the table, sorry Sash this is definitely a bust."

Martin chimed in at that, "I did find a Youtube channel that allegedly planned to investigate a warehouse where a ghost was rumoured to be and they even planned an expedition there!"

"Well?", Sasha exclaimed, "Don't leave us hanging there Martin, what did they find??"

"Well uh, it looks like they had to cancel the trip because the police reported disappearances around that area that they link to potential gang activity and they didn't want to stay the night there because it's dangerous."

"Uggggggh", Sasha replied and lowered her head on her desk.

"Seriously over all the months we've been looking into this all we've found are liars and potheads what the hell", Tim complained and stood up from his desk, "You know what? I'm heading to lunch early today, you guys wanna join me?"

"It's not even that early Tim", Sasha grumbled without even looking up, "It's 1 pm already, we've been at this for hours"

"Well, in that case, I'm taking an on-time lunch, let me get Jon and we're gonna head out, Martin you in?" Tim said while grabbing his jacket.

"Yeah sure, let me get my wallet."

"I'm in too, mama needs her extra dose of caffeine", Sasha sighed and grabbed her bag.

Tim nodded and went over to Jon's office. After knocking politely, something they all had to do now since Jon would startle so badly that he almost fell out of his chair if they didn't make their presence known, and entered the office. Sleep deprivation had made him more erratic and although he was more jumpy than usual and his office had turned into a paper filled mess, Tim found that Jon still spoke softly with him and the others and hadn't snapped back at them once, even when he was irritated. Whatever that mysterious college friends of his did, they sure managed to smoothen out his edges.

He couldn't help but worry though when he saw his boss' face, dark eye bags and lines of exhaustion coloured his expression and Tim wondered if the promotion wasn't being hazardous to his health. At this point, the job would kill him before he could reach his actual forties.

"Heya boss, you wanna join us for lunch today?", he asked.

The light in the office wasn't on and only the soft glow of the laptop illuminated the area faintly. Jon was staring at the screen, files and papers were littered on his desk and stacks of paper scattered around the office in a somewhat organised mess. Jon gave no indication that he heard him and Tim sighed quietly before making his way to the desk by stepping carefully around the piles. The couch was mostly empty and Tim suspected that Jon took power naps there whenever he could afford to.

It looked like Jon had somehow finished his stack of statements early, an endeavour Tim was honestly impressed by, and had neatly stacked them on his desk. Between the 3 of them an entire box worth of statements took often more than a week and it looked like Jon was making more progress without them.

Once he reached the desk he took note of the other's laptop screen. To his great surprise, he saw a listing for a house, and not a small one either. Jon was scrolling through the description before switching to another tab and looking at an article about... house decoration? No that couldn't be right, could it?

Tim managed to shake himself out of his stupor and quietly repeated the others name. He wanted to shake Jon's shoulder but he didn't want to startle the man. Slowly, Jon turned his head around to look at him. The light illuminating his face made it look like his eyes were reflecting it back. Needless to say, Tim was more than a little concerned now.

"Boss, I asked if you wanted to go to lunch with us", Tim repeated quietly. He wasn't sure why he didn't raise his voice but it felt fitting somehow. The office felt stuffy and the air seemed to press down on them. For reasons he couldn't explain, It reminded him of a library. Nobody spoke loudly in a library after all.

Jon slowly blinked at him again and finally replied with, "Give me ten minutes please, I'll be out by then."

Tim nodded before hastily, and quietly made his way back to the door as fast as he could without knocking any of the files over and closed it behind him with a soft click.

"Well took you long enough", he heard Sasha say from her desk, "what, did you have to argue with him about going lunch or something? It's been like 10 minutes."

"Ah sorry", Tim said rubbing his neck, the whole thing felt a little off to him but in the light of the softly illuminated room the 3 of them shared and the fresh air flowing in from the hall he managed to brush any anxiety aside, "unfortunately I have bad news for you Martin."

"Huh?", Martin looked up from his phone.

Tim made a face, oh boy this was going to be one awkward lunch.

"It looks like the whole ''friend' thing", and he made the accompanying quotation marks with his fingers, "is more than just a friend thing. I'm pretty sure these two might be dating."

"What do you mean?", Sasha asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes Tim, what do you mean", Martin snipped back with a challenging look in his eyes.

"I've... I saw he was looking at house listings and decorative advice online", Tim managed to get out.

An awkward silence fell upon the room.

"Well that could mean anything", Sasha replied carefully after a while, "maybe he's just been looking for a new place that's all."

Tim could see Martin relaxing slightly into his chair, "A whole house? By himself? Seems pretty suspect to me."

Sasha squinted at him before grinning, "well only one way to find out!"

"Whoa what", Martin asked frantically and got up from his chair, "you really don't have to do that!"

"Martin I want to get to the bottom of at least one mystery today", Sasha replied cheerfully, "don't worry I'm not gonna mention anything, just let me do the talking."

"I second that", Tim said and after being subjected to Martin's glare continued with, "besides don't you want to find out what's up with them?"

"Fine", Martin replied with a huff.

Behind them, Tim could hear the sound of a door opening and quickly turned around.

"Ready to go?" Jon asked.

\---------------------------------------------------------

Lunch wasn't as awkward as Tim expected it to be.

Although Martin was busy trying to sink into the floor and Tim was preoccupied with staring at the menu, Jon was too busy keeping himself awake and Sasha had that glint in her eye again whenever she was about to uncover a mystery.

All in all, Tim really hoped she knew what she was doing. Jon wasn't in the best of moods after Elias talked to him.

"Soo Jon", Sasha started out with, "Tim told me he saw you looking for a new place, are you planning to move out?"

Oh no, whyyy did she have to start with that??? He prepared himself to get a stern talking to about invasion of privacy and made a point of burying his face into the menu in an attempt to hide.

But it seemed that Jon was too tired for a confrontation today. Or maybe he just didn't care enough to start one.

"Hmm? Oh yes, I finished my work early and decided to look up some places, good houses are very difficult to find and I've been doing research on some agencies."

For the first time, Tim was very grateful for his boss' terrible work habits and the resulting sleep deprivation and made it a point to keep his tone as light as possible when the waitress came around to take their orders.

"Oh hey, I think I'm going to try out the carbonara today, what about you guys?"

"Oh um sandwiches for me", Martin replied awkwardly.

"Mhhhm, let me get the fish and chips today", Sasha said without looking away from Jon.

"I'll also take that", Jon sighed heavily, "I'm kind of sick of pasta by now".

Tim nodded before closing the menu and sipping on his lemonade in an attempt at casualness.

"Oh I see, is your friend going to help you out then", Sasha continued innocently.

"Georgie? Ah yes, she was rather excited about the whole ordeal.", Jon continued while resting his head on his hand, "she even gave me some advice on salt shakers."

Tim almost choked on his lemonade and Martin tensed noticeably.

Sasha nodded as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "I see, is she going to help you with decorating too?"

Jon hummed in affirmation, "We're going to look at houses together, apparently she wants to make sure I don't pick out a haunted one by accident"

By now Sasha was brimming with excitement and Tim was shaking from restraining himself to grab Jon by his little sweater and yell questions at him. Martin meanwhile had collapsed into the seat cushion.

Sasha wasn't done though and instead leaned forward, "So you're dating then?"

By now Tim wanted to leap out of his seat and escape through the door, lunch be damned. Unfortunately for him, the waitress had returned with their meals and he couldn't do so without throwing the poor women to the side.

"We used to date in college", Jon replied sluggishly picking at his chips with a fork, "sadly I was kind of an ass to her back then and we broke up, I managed to make it up to her recently though. Actually, our spa trip was my way of doing so. We've managed to patch things up."

Tim was pretty sure he was going to die on the spot and Martin had gone paler and paler as the conversation progressed.

Sasha nodded again, "So what kind of house are you looking for?"

After that Tim stopped paying attention and instead focussed on eating his food quietly. Jon was slowly answering Sasha's questions about houses and his future plans and Tim wanted to ask him so many questions. He managed to hold himself back though, Jon knowing about their gossip about his social life would not end well.

Before long, Jon had finished his lunch before any of them did, as Martin and Sasha had to yet to touch their plates and Tim barely picked at his. Eventually, Jon excused himself and said he wanted to return to his office to catch some rest and Sasha cheerfully bid him goodbye.

As soon as Jon was out the door though, Sasha whipped her head around, "She???"

Tim threw his hands in the air, "She!!!"

Martin, however, only put his head in his hands.

Meanwhile, the waitress wondered if it would be appropriate to go refill their drinks right now.

\--------------------------------------------------------

After Jon woke up from a much-needed power nap on his office couch, he returned to his browsing until it was time to return home.

He had a vague recollection of talking to his assistants about real estate and his freshly restored friendship with Georgie. With the exception of a warm meal and cold lemonade, that was pretty much all he remembered though. He really needed some good sleep before he passed out on top of his food next time they went to lunch.

The way home was uneventful and before long he was already entering his apartment and taking off his shoes to collapse into bed.

By the time 9 pm rolled around and his alarm rang, he was much more coherent and lucid than before. That panic attack of last night really obliterated any rest he might've gotten.

Jon decided that if Michael did come to kill him he would fight back and not cower. Even if that meant getting cut into pieces by knife-hands. Very long very sharp and very deadly knife-hands.

Maybe he could go for the eyes would that work?

The night really started to fall now and Jon settled into his preferred blanket pile on the couch next to the small coffee table on which he had put chocolates for snacking. After the first month, he had really settled into the nocturnal routine and if it wasn't for the incessant boredom it really wasn't all that bad.

He decided to look up shows about house hunting and was thoroughly entertained by the bickering of the couples and the exasperated realtors showing them around.

That is until a shrilling alarm noise was ringing in his mind. Except it wasn't really a noise but he had no other way of describing it if asked, all he knew that it _hurt_ and that he needed to get some cereal rightNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOWNOW-

By the time Jon's vision cleared, he was already in the kitchen holding a cereal bowl and a box of cornflakes and as soon as he started pouring them, the noise stopped.

Jon didn't know what in the hell had brought this on, if it was the Eye doing it again to warn him or something like that, but the pressure behind his eyes was still there and he really didn't want to risk it over cereal. So, almost in mechanical motion, he reached for the door handle of the refrigerator.

As soon as his hand came in contact with it, the pressure vanished completely.

He stood there with a half-filled cereal bowl, the other half on the floor from his frantic jerking motions, and his hand on the handle. Now the smart thing to do would be to turn around, leave his apartment and crash on Georgie's couch until he could find a new place.

Unfortunately for him, Jon's curiosity won out in the end and he pulled the door open.

What greeted him was not something one would expect from a refrigerator, sure there was the regular stuff inside like milk, leftovers and other produce that would spoil if left to sit outside, however, the back of it had been replaced with a hallway. As if it was simply a doorway to the dimension beyond, except with small hinges on the right side, which meant the door that connected the hallway to the back was swung inward, his refrigerator was now a sort of bridge, connecting his apartment and the distortion’s hallway. And in the doorway was Michael, hands deep in some leftover potato salad Jon vaguely remembered buying and caught in the act of doing... whatever the distortion wanted his potato salad for.

Both of them stared at each other for a while, Michael was frozen in shock and Jon from bewilderment, until Jon eventually managed to gather his words.

"Could you pass the milk, please?"

It could have occurred to Jon, that the distortion did not like being asked questions, especially by him who was very bad at keeping the compulsion out of it. Unfortunately he was too busy staring and by the time the realisation set in it was too late. Oh well if he got stabbed, he got stabbed.

But it seemed as though he managed to startle the other so badly he didn't even notice and slowly, Michael reached over his very sharp, potato salad covered hand, which he pulled out of the small box they shouldn't have been able to fit in in the first place, and handed him the milk carton by pinching it between his fingernails without cutting it.

Jon was a little annoyed to discover that Michael could simply choose not to cut something with them and reached over to take the carton.

"Thanks."

And he closed the refrigerator door without much else.

After pouring himself some milk and getting a spoon from the kitchen, it occurred to him that he should probably be very concerned by this turn of events. Instead, as soon as he finished his bowl on the kitchen counter, the pressure behind his eyes returned and this time, Jon was led to his bathroom mirror. Thankfully without any further pain on his part.

Why the Eye decided to lead him around like that wasn't clear but Jon knew an opportunity when he saw one. Elias couldn't watch with the spiral's presence, and Michael was busy in his refrigerator doing... whatever. And no spider was here to watch him either.

With a heavy sigh, lamenting his poor choice of changing into his pyjamas (by the incessant humming in his head it was clear he couldn't go back and change without more headache-causing pain), Jon carefully climbed on top of his sink and, after focussing on the surface until it started its pull, climbed into the mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lads since this whole fic is so long lets have a small recap so far of what we know:  
> -Jon is aware of any eyes on him and can thereby know whenever Elias looks at him since the Eye will tell him  
> -this power applies to others as well but the Eye can't see everything so Jon has to look for the culprit himself(ie small spider watching him on shelf), in addition Jon is able to see small details down to the dust corn which helps a lot(enhance!)  
> -Nobody has witnessed Jon and Georgies conversation (this applies for all coming chapters so no small spider or anything was listening in) because nobody would have reason to assume that this one dude is up to anything 1 week into being the archivist  
> -Jon can change his appearance via mirror and has hidden his earring through it, also his eyes can glow green  
> -Jon can put stuff in the mirror and Michael’s true form is reflected in them  
> -Although Jon knows when he is being watched the assistants don't and I assume Elias keeps tabs on the institute  
> That's it so far now lets get into the new stuff >:3  
> PS: please leave a comment if you can!


	12. Reflections of the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looking-glass:  
> noun: looking glass; plural noun: looking glasses  
> -1. A mirror  
> -2. opposite to what is normal or expected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jon goes for a walk

To say that Jon stumbled out of the mirror wouldn't be entirely accurate, nor would be calling it a fall for that matter. At first, he was surrounded by that warmth and softness which he encountered in his dream before. A comforting weight all around him that didn't feel stifling and left him feeling as if he was buried in a comfortable layer of cloud. It also made his skin tingle slightly, like it was covered in goosebumps. The colours were unchanged, a soft iridescent white with accents of different colours resembling the inside of a seashell. It felt strangely comforting to drift weightlessly.

The calm didn't last though, unlike last time where he was slowly being lifted upwards, this time, it felt more akin to a rapid tug as his whole body was dragged out of the cloud-like mass by an invisible force. Although Jon expected some sort of awkward fumbling when he climbed inside, what ended up happening was much much worse. He didn't so much as fall as he got flung upwards at terminal velocity.

There was no wind to possible indicate if he was falling or rising but Jon knew, as he did with everything the Eye deigned to share with him, that although his bathroom mirror was located off the ground, and he lived on the 3rd floor of his apartment complex, the height he was falling from was much higher than that.

Even more strangely, the mirror didn't seem to fit a linear exit point, he may have entered it with little force and at a vertical angle, as it was positioned on a wall, but when he came out of it, he was flung upwards as if the other side of it had been tilted upwards like a ping pong paddle waiting to bounce the ball back in an arch.

He had a fleeting suspicion that the Eye was behind it somehow, not that that was the strangest thing the Eye did. Definitely up there with feeding him cereal though.

As he was sailing through the air, Jon vaguely wondered when his patron had become so hands-on.

...

Eyes-on?

Whichever one it was, it was certainly worrying.

It felt a bit as though he had jumped off of a building with a running start. Unfortunately, as he was so high up, as soon as he was flung upwards, he started to rapidly descend again. Which meant that if the rest of the realm was ground level like the real world outside, Jon was pretty much falling off of the 3rd story at best, or from the top of this dimension at worst. He certainly hoped it wouldn't kill him.

Only as that realisation set in, did he notice the view beneath him.

Down below he could see the vast expanse of white shining ground that continued on into the distance. It was that same milky white he remembered from his dream and the sky resembled a cloudy layer that seemed to hide whatever lurked above. He could hazard a guess that the What in question was staring at him right now. On the horizon, he could see a bright light, yet no discernable source that could be responsible for it. It looked like a sunset, except the sun was replaced by an irradiating star that was resting in between the space that the sky and ground occupied and shone a piercing bright white. It almost hurt to look at.

The white clouds above shifted in colours, from red to yellow to green highlights as if a storm was brewing. Only after he took in the whole scene, did Jon realise that the ground below wasn't colourful at all, it merely reflected the shifting sky above. His first assessment of a giant mirror wasn't all that inaccurate then. Looking at the whole thing made him dizzy though, as it was hard to tell which way was up and which way was down. If gravity wasn't affecting him at the moment he wouldn't have known the difference between sky and earth.

The light in the distance didn't help either and pretty soon Jon was forced to avert his eyes from the whole thing lest he got another headache. Those have been getting less frequent and he would rather keep it that way.

Which reminded him that he was still very much falling to his death. If he indeed was thrown out of the cloud layer above, that would mean that he would soon become a splatter of a pancake on the ground.

The thought didn't bother him as much as it should have, maybe all those near-death experiences managed to toughen him up a bit. Pointless suffering builds character after all, Jon thought dryly. It was a little disconcerting seeing ones face reflected back at him seconds before he hit the ground. His last thought was that he looked more tired than he really felt.

Thankfully though, Jon didn't splatter face first on the ground as he expected but instead plummeted into something that felt a lot like cotton. Very comfortable, very soft cotton. The impact made him gasp but apart from that, he felt perfectly fine. Even from the 3rd story, it should have broken a couple of bones at least, no matter how soft the ground was, but it looked like not all physics applied. Or maybe he just couldn't be harmed here.

Before he could decide on whether he should get up or not, he felt himself sink into the ground and decided that he wasn't ready to return to his apartment and face the spirals nonsense again. He'd have to remember to throw away that potato salad when he got back.

If he managed to find a way out that is.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he managed to pull out his limbs, that have started to sink into the ground and get up. He noted that although the surface was soft, it created little water ripples whenever he touched it or moved around. This managed to keep his attention for several minutes before he decided to take note of his surroundings.

As expected, the horizon seemed to stretch on endlessly and there wasn't a way to tell where one exactly was. No buildings or plants stretched across the expansive surface he was standing on and for anyone other than Jon, it might have been reason enough to lose one's mind in this place.

Jon knew that there was more to it though and started walking towards the bright light on the horizon. From his position on the ground, it wasn't as blinding as it was from above and Jon could see that it illuminated the shifting clouds above him, which made them shine rather nicely. All in all, it looked quite aesthetically pleasing.

Wherever he stepped, the water rippled around his foot and soon enough, he started to relax gradually. The lack of noise and bright colours, that accompanied London whenever he headed out to work or took a stroll through the shopping centres with Georgie, was a relief. It allowed him to focus on his thoughts more without anything else distracting him.

Clearly the Eye wanted him back here for some reason. Was his dream a sort of prophecy? Did the Eye show him a possibility, a space he could enter and shape so that he may make use of it? Or was he able to access this plane of existence through his dreams as well? If so, what purpose would it serve?

Jon remembered that walking amongst dreams wasn't entirely unheard of for other avatars. Oliver Banks saw the future death of the people in London, as he walked its streets inside his dreams. Justin Gough was somehow able to kill people through entering their dreams and making it seem as though his victims have died from carbon monoxide poisoning. It occurred to Jon, that that may be an ability he shared with some End avatars, although for entirely different reasons.

He certainly hoped it was for different reasons. Killing people wasn't something he was known for and he certainly hoped it stayed that way.

After all, when Jon was stuck in that coma between life and death, he merely watched. As he mused over the similarities between the fear of being watched and the fear of death and what either of those two might have to do with dreams, something shifted.

The entire time he was walking forward, the light had been shining in his face. Now he was standing in shadow.

As he looked up to take in this new development, he saw that the cloud layer above was blocked out by a greyish granite looking roof. A really off looking block-shaped roof with little to no details. Jon realized he was standing in the gazebo he had made in his dream.

Which meant...

After carefully stepping out of the structure and avoiding the very sharp corners he didn't bother smoothing out back then, he took a couple of steps back to take in the outside as well. It really did look as terrible as he thought it would. With his newfound knowledge, after watching a documentary on the subject, it really did look like something a child made out of building blocks.

The edges were sharp and pointed, the roof looked like a cone stacked on top of 4 blocks, and the bench inside looked not only uncomfortable but also wasn't entirely even, with one side higher than the other. Jon wished he could wipe this disgrace from the surface off the earth so no one else would have to gaze upon this failure of a gazebo.

Right as he had that thought, he saw a crack appear on the surface. He watched with fascination as it spread out in the form of a Lichtenberg fractal and slowly covered every surface of the gazebo and the bench within. It didn't do much than that though.

Jon hesitated for a moment before carefully approaching the structure. The cracks may give the whole thing an old and decrepit appearance, but as he ran his fingers over them, he felt no surface imperfections or rough edges. It felt as if the whole thing spread from within the structure, like a glass cube with a crack in the middle but none on the outside.

He wondered if he could simply... destroy it just like that. If his thoughts alone could summon it from the ground, or the clouds above Jon wasn't sure which one it was, and his thoughts also caused the fracture, then maybe he could unmake it as well?

Stupid, stupid gazebo, he thought as clearly and loudly as he could.

The block in front of him started to shake, almost as if it was shuddering from fear, and the entire thing collapsed into bits and pieces of whatever material it had been made out of. Jon startled backwards when a noise rang out. As the rest of the smaller pieces fell off, as soon as they would hit the ground, a small windchime-like noise emitted and ripplets spread across the reflective surface of the ground.

They reminded Jon of the dying wheeze of an old piece of furniture, finally succumbing to the strain of time.

Finally, the blasted thing was still entirely, with only some remaining dust pieces softly trailing to the ground without a sound. He thought it was all rather dramatic for a piece of failed architecture. He watched with no small amount of fascination, as the remains of the gazebo started to sink into the ground. Well, at least it was self-cleaning, Jon thought.

Although it would've been fascinating to watch, Jon knew that the entire thing would probably take a while to return to... wherever it came from in the first place. He wondered if the rest of his projects were lying around somewhere. If he recalled correctly, there should be a pile of cubes as well as a big cube lying around somewhere as well. As he was scanning the horizon, he spotted a small pile to the right of the wreckage he was standing in front of. Upon closer inspection, he realised that it was a pile of shampoo bottles. And also an apple was laying slightly to the side of it.

What struck Jon, was not that these objects ended up here, he knew that he would most likely find them here when the Eye led him into the mirror. No, what was most concerning was how fresh the apple looked. As he picked it up, he noted that it was still a perfect vibrant red with no signs of decay to be seen anywhere. Now Jon may not have brought any tools with him, climbing inside the mirror in his pyjamas, but he could still manage to rip apart a small apple with his hands.

It took an embarrassingly long time, with Jon ending up sweaty and the surface of the apple slightly scratched when he tried to use his nails, but in the end, he managed to rip off a piece of the apple. The inside was just as fresh as the outside. He decided to test his luck, and also reward himself for his labour, and took a bite. It tasted pretty much like a regular apple. At least this one didn't have any teeth in it.

While he was chewing, he wondered where the cubes he had constructed out of the cloud layer above were. As far as theories go, Jon concluded that it didn't matter from where he drew forth these objects. The gazebo may have erected itself from the ground, but the cubes fell from the sky. Maybe that was because throwing a whole building from the sky took more effort? Or because they could break on impact? Or maybe he just subconsciously assumed that a building was more likely to spring out of the ground than it was to fall from the sky? Or was it because the way he faced affected the location from which these objects came? He'd have to test that in the future but for now he needed to focus on finding a way out.

Apart from trying it out himself, the only other way to get answers was to ask his patron, but currently, he was fine with eating his apple. Getting a paralysing migraine that would knock him out in a dimension he had no way out of yet, would not bode well for him.

Speaking of a way out, he really needed to look for the entry point somewhere, or portal or door or anything that could get him out of here. He tried to focus on the stream of Knowledge the Eye provided him with, surely now that he has seen whatever it wanted him to see meant he could go home now? Unfortunately, he did not receive any instructions or got a physical map that descended from the sky. What he did get was a brief sequence of events that flashed in his mind's eye and left him slightly dizzy.

"Whoa wait, you removed the cubes?", Jon asked as soon as he managed to process the information. The hum that reverbed from above was dim and carried an edge of... embarrassment? No that couldn't be right... flustered maybe? That sounded more right.

"Ok but why? I mean not that I was that attached to them in the first place, but why?", Jon asked slightly perplexed. He didn't know why he bothered talking out loud to it if it could probably read his mind anyway but it felt more right somehow. An image of a wooden box, a chest Jon realised, flickered through his mind, followed by another which depicted a pile of toy cubes scattered around a child's bedroom haphazardly with no real organisation or order behind it.

"Wow thanks", Jon replied dryly.

He didn't know what was worse, that the damn thing cleaned up after him or that it was slowly learning what level of information Jon could safely process. That meant that it was learning. And if it was learning it meant it had cognitive function.

Jon really really hoped that was the result of the massive amount of power the apocalypse gave it and not something all 14 of the entities possessed. If they were sentient that would create a whole nother set of problems. Furthermore, he certainly didn't remember any mentions of time travel in any of the statements he had read in the institute. The mental image of Elias time travelling around appeared and he gave a small shudder at the thought.

Best not to think about it.

"Well I'm done looking around, can I go home now?", Jon said to the sky.

He received no answer.

"Oh just great", he muttered angrily, "what else am I supposed to do then?"

Just as the words left his mouth a shudder went through the entire surface he was standing on. As he looked down, he saw the same ripplets come out of the space he was standing on and quickly stepped back a little. As he continued to watch the effect happen on the spot he was previously standing in, he noted that something was rising up from the surface. By now the remains of the gazebo had almost completely sunk into the floor and the bottle of shampoos was rattling ominously. He really hoped it wasn't an Eyeball rising from the ground, that would have been one weird thing too many today.

Instead, Jon watched as a perfectly round silver mirror rose from the spot and began hovering off the ground at eye level. Looking inside he realised that he was seeing his bathroom on the surface. He could tell though that the Eye didn't want him to climb inside just yet and was waiting for something. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what that something could be, but he figured looking inside would give him a clue.

His bathroom looked much the same as it always did, a black and white checkered tiled floor that had been laid out by the previous owner, as well as white tiles on the walls with a small window next to the shower to let the steam escape. A wicker basket stood in the corner next to the door where he put his dirty clothes, Jon could see the small holes in it as well as the frazzled edges of the wicker that had formed from years of use. The bathtub had a selection of soaps and bath salts, some half-used and the etiquettes partially peeling off from the steam and moisture. His shower was crammed into another corner of the room, barely out of sights as it was right next to the sink and the mirror above it, and had his favourite body wash bottles in it. Jon could see small cracks on the tiles that had been there ever since he moved in, the shower door's glass looked slightly murky and had a crack in the top right from that one time he slipped and almost smashed his head in after an allnighter he had to pull in college and his sleep-deprived brain hadn't caught up with his body yet. He felt a bit as if he was scanning the finer details of his bathroom with a magnifying glass.

All in all, it looked much the same as it always did.

Jon frowned and took a step back, trying to see if maybe the mirror floating in front of him had something unusual about it. His leg bumped against something behind him as soon as he took a step back.

When he looked down, he saw that he bumped against a wicker basket that was standing on the ground. As he was staring at it in bewilderment, he realised that he was now standing inside of his own bathroom. It didn't look like his bathroom though. The colours were all muddled, a soft greyish white and the colour of marble with coloured highlights that shifted whenever he tilted his head. Upon closer inspection, the wicker basket itself still had the frayed edges as he remembered and as he tilted it up and down, he noted that it was an almost identical copy of the one he had in his actual bathroom. When he looked in the mirror again, he saw that the basket in his real bathroom had not moved from its spot.

A copy then.

Jon continued to observe the other objects he had somehow conjured up in this plane of existence. The shower still had its crack at the top of the door, the bathtub still had the shower bottles with the half-peeled etiquettes, even the sink had appeared below the mirror and the walls enclosed the entire area just like in his real bathroom. It was a near-perfect replication. If it wasn't for the lack of colours and smells, Jon wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

The mirror's surface, now no longer floating in midair but instead mounted on the new wall, was slightly glowing and he realised that that must have been what the Eye wanted to show him. It made him wonder if the rest of his apartment would follow the same lead, an accurate, yet off-colour, replication of reality.

A reflection of reality, Jon realised. That's what it was. Not the truth itself, but as close as a replication could get anyhow.

While Jon was standing there holding the basket and trying to process this new information, a movement from the edge of his vision caught his attention. The mirror's surface was still glowing which meant that he must have activated it again, and there, in his real bathroom, he could see the door handle slightly jiggle.

With a start, Jon remembered that Michael was still in his apartment and had probably gotten tired of waiting for him to emerge from the bathroom and was now on the prowl. Eventually, he watched the door handle turn slowly and a long, bony hand wrapped itself around the door before pushing it open. It looked like the Spiral still very much had a sense for drama and Jon really, really hoped that he wouldn't be noticed inside his own damn mirror.

It didn't help that he seemed to freeze up like a deer in the headlights whenever he saw the other, but it wasn't really his fault. Those hands looked really, really sharp and Jon knew from experience that he wanted nothing to do with them. It also didn'T help that most of his experience with other avatars has been negative, and especially the Spiral liked to be persistent. As the door opened fully, Michael took a step inside, and Jon could see that he didn't bother to keep up with his human disguise today. No, instead the other loomed taller than the ceiling of his bathroom, having to slouch to fit inside, and his form was shifting and twisting all over the place.

If Jon wasn't so used to seeing it, it would have left him dizzy. Of course, Helen never bothered to keep up appearances and so Jon was merely fascinated by the shifting colours and twisting form. Michael seemed to take in his surroundings, looking around the place and even checking the shower and cupboards, as if Jon somehow managed to squeeze himself in the smallest of places. Jon could tell the other was confused and he really hoped that that would be the end of it so that he could simply climb out again and hopefully have enough time to catch some sleep before work.

Luck wasn't on his side though, as Michael must have sensed his stare and Jon felt himself tense up as the other locked eyes with him. He knew that there was no way Michael could possibly grab him out of the mirror, but Jon also knew from experience that the best strategy was to simply leave whenever things got out of control. It worked well enough last time, didn't it?

And so, without breaking eye contact and keeping a straight poker face, Jon slowly backed away towards the fake white door behind him, still holding the wicker basket and not one to admit defeat easily, he opened the door, walked out and closed in front of him. Jon was not one to brag but he felt rather smug watching Michaels expression of disbelief.

As soon as he closed the door behind him though, he turned around and pressed himself against it as the tension drained out of him. Why is it that dealing with monsters all the time had become his new normal? Why did he ever accept this stupid promotion? At this rate, the stress from trying to act as normal as possible would kill him before anything else could. He wondered if it would pay off to simply drop the charade and embrace the truth as it was. Lying left a bad aftertaste in his mouth and maybe if he simply fed on fear like all the other avatars did, it would be easier on him.

No, he couldn't think about that.

He owed it to the others to make sure they all got out of this whole and safe.

Jon carefully picked himself off of the ground and noted that the outside of his bathroom now had several floating mirrors and surfaces all around the area. He walked to the place where he estimated his living room was located and found a window floating in midair. Once he looked inside, he didn't see the outside of his apartment, but a slightly more transparent reflection of his real living room. Once he took that in, he felt a prickling feeling at his back, and sure enough, as soon as he turned around, a near-perfect copy of his living room had appeared behind him. He also found the pile of shampoo bottles he and Georgie took from the spa and decided that, since he couldn't exactly return to his apartment with Michael roaming about, they would have to do as an apology.

Honestly, who spends more than 1k on a bunch of shampoo anyway?

Jon figure that he might as well 'complete' his whole apartment before heading out, and made his way to his bedroom. He did have a wall mirror hanging there, and after gazing inside, he managed to reconstruct that room as well. The kitchen was a bit trickier, the microwave had a reflective cover, but it was faint and positioned at such an angle that he couldn't fill out the space completely. After finding a knife floating in midair, right about where his knife block would be, he managed to fill that out as well. His entire apartment was now a white colour and although he probably wouldn't risk sleeping here, it did make him feel accomplished.

It felt a bit as if he was colouring out a picture. Except the lines that showed you which colours belonged where, were random floating objects that reflected a piece of the real world outside. A piece of truth, so to speak. Jon wondered if he could recreate all of London that way. As he stepped outside his apartment, wicker basket full of shampoo still in his hands, he walked around the place where the building's hallway should be, and sure enough, after looking into the semi-reflective glass from the fire alarm, he managed to fill that out as well. It wasn't as detailed as he would have liked but he'd worry about that later.

He couldn't exactly fill out his neighbours' apartments without invading their privacy, but as he experimentally opened a door, he found it unlocked and a bunch of reflective surfaces were scattered around the entryway. Who knew the nice old lady next door had so many picture frames?

Jon decided that he wouldn't snoop around any longer and instead made his way downstairs. It seemed that he was higher up now than when he had started and, after filling out the stairwell, made his way outside. It must have been raining during the night, because the entire plane that was once empty, had now little puddles all scattered about the ground that showed the streets of London once Jon leaned over them and looked inside. Further down the road, that was slowly beginning to fill out, he saw gleaming shop windows and cars that shone in the light of the star on the horizon. Shops and buildings began to fill out all around him and Jon was thoroughly entertained the entire time that he was walking. Thankfully though, the recreation didn't seem to include people, as a group of teenagers that stood around the entrance of a nightclub with a neon sign glowing in the night, didn't seem to show up in his reconstruction.

He was quite relieved actually, Jon didn't know if he would have handled the frozen faces of marble-like statues appearing in the streets well.

What was odd though, is that the people didn't seem to move at all. As Jon stepped closer to take a closer look, he could see the smoke of a cigarette, that one of the teens was holding, frozen in midair. That would explain the apple then, if no time passed here then that would mean that it couldn't decay and stay fresh. It reminded him of the spiral's hallways and its neverending twists and turns where victims could wander around for months and years and come out entirely unchanged. Or not come out at all, if they lost their minds. Jon shuddered at the thought.

As he continued to stare out of the reflection, he noted that the people seemed to... unfreeze? The longer he looked the more they started to move again. First slowly as the cigarette smoke began rising again and then faster until the scene in front of him caught up to the regular progression of time. Jon couldn't hear anything, their voices not pushing through through the reflection of the wet surface of the car he was looking through, but he decided to move on lest one of them noticed him. His mind's eye provided him images of people being dragged through the glass and he was quick to push those thoughts aside.

Whenever he stepped into one of the puddles on the ground, it would make a small sound much like a xylophone note, and the watery surface would ripple and distort the view of the real world outside. He found that the entire thing didn't bother him as much as it should have, maybe he was just getting used to it then. The streets did look rather pretty though, the white reminiscent of marble and lacking any stark contrasts the real world was often overpowered by.

It made him wonder though if the shampoo and the apple were here, did that mean that the statements that he had pushed inside the mirror when he burned Gertrude's body were also here? Were they perhaps stuck around the area of the institute? Although storing things here could be pretty useful, it was rather inconvenient that he still had to walk everywhere he wanted to go.

What was the point of a mirror dimension where one could access every place on earth as long as it was reflected somewhere if you still have to walk everywhere?

His arms were getting slightly tired from carrying all the shampoo bottles with him, and he cursed himself inwardly for giving in to his childish impulses back then. Georgie better appreciate the bottles.

With a sigh, he readjusted his grip on the basket, hoping that they would be as good as an apology as any for letting him crash on her couch for the night, and turned towards the next street to Georgie's place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Eye while tilting up Jon's exit portal in the mirror world: haha Archivist go whoosh  
>  Aye the Eye gave Jon a little sandbox world to play in, isn't that nice? Wonder what that could be useful for? >:)  
>  also its been a month guys, so sorry to keep you all waiting! Finals week was stressful and I hope I'll be able to return to my weekly update schedule  
>  second part will come out later, I'm splitting it into two because I realised 10k all at once is really hard to process /D  
>  Please leave a comment if you can!  
>  PS: heres what I imagine Jon's mirror world to look like:
> 
> except, ya know it's London


	13. Reflections of the world (pt. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon makes an appointment with a realtor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw the score is Michael: 0 Archivist: 3  
> Jon had 3 consecutive strikes which probably is a big deal in sports terms or something, here it just means Michael is having a bit of a crisis right now  
> Ps: I legitamately forgot to upload this and now it's been two weeks I am the entire circus :,o)

Jon made it there in record time, which meant that it took 10 minutes rather than the usual 15, and only because Jon was running with a heavy basket full of glass bottles in his arms. If he didn't have those he would have made it in 7! Or well, maybe 9 his usual walking speed was already quite fast when he was nervous or excited and the basket only slowed him down a little.

He wondered if it was possible to move quicker in here. Surely a mirror dimension which he could enter through what was basically a literal portal would have a quicker way to cross it? At this rate, Jon would either be even more exhausted from walking everywhere or gain some leg muscles. Might even be useful for future chases, hell he might even hit the gym for once.

...

Well, he thought, maybe some other time.

He needed all the energy he could get, sleep deprivation combined with a daily workout routine would surely kill him. At least the mirror would provide a safe haven when it came to sleep if only his life wasn't such a shitstorm maybe he would actually get some proper rest for once. If indeed all time had stopped, as long as he didn't activate one of the mirrors (or rather portals) to the real world, that meant he could just pop in here and take a quick 10-hour nap and pop right back in as if nothing happened.

If that didn't work, Jon would have to resort to Plan B and he was really in no mood to deal with Breekon and Hope again. Especially if he wanted to steal from them.

That also meant his previous assumption had been wrong, Michael didn't get tired of waiting for him to come out of the bathroom, he had followed him with a small delay. Which meant that the Eye had saved his hide, just great. Jon didn't know how he felt about a giant, now probably sentient, Eyeball helping him out.

On one hand, it meant that his entity was still very much interested in preventing the end of the world which was good. On the other hand, however, it was also incredibly disconcerting to think that it could just move him about like that. If that happened in front of the others, he'd have an incredibly hard time explaining it. Sasha would probably call an exorcist, Tim might just kill him outright and pretty much every other avatar would be out for his blood if they realised just how strong he really was.

They'd most likely conclude that he came into his powers incredibly quickly which would mark him as a threat to pretty much everything and everyone.

Jon would have to establish some boundaries with his patron. At least this time around, he had someone to give a bit of guidance when needed, Jon was pretty sure Elias had been making up most of his explanations from the start and therefore wasn't a credible source of information.

Always check your sources, his old professors had said. Well, this time Jon would make sure to go directly to the source.

Eventually, he arrived at Georgie's place. His arms were burning and he was beyond exhausted and so he took a quick rest on the stairwell of the building to catch his breath. While he was sitting, he slowly began filling out the world around him as he did before. He hadn't stopped to do so properly on his way here and as a result, the streets he ran along were most likely bare, and not as detailed as they should have been. He'd have to fix that on his way back.

After he was done focussing on the slightly distorted reflection of the metal railing, and successfully managed to fill out the rest of the area, he carefully got up. Picking up the basket was difficult as by now his arms were burning from strain, and he carefully made his way up the stairs while taking short breaks in between. Why did Georgie have to live so high up?? 3 stories were way too high in his opinion, it was a damn miracle they had managed to get her sofa up there back then.

It would have to be early Wednesday by now, around 2 am his internal clock helpfully supplied, and he really hoped he could manage to wake her up without panic. Or maybe she was awake and doing a recording session or something.

After Jon made it up to her apartment door, he realised that he didn't exactly have a key for it anymore. Remembering his previous brief snooping in his neighbour's apartment, he decided to try the handle anyway. To his great surprise, it actually opened for him.

Well if he ever became a robber, this ability would be pretty useful.

He quickly entered her apartment and quietly shut the door behind him. After putting down the basket near the entrance to the living room, Jon began mapping out the rest of the room. A double-sided mirror left half-hazardly next to a makeup kit was laying on the small coffee table in front of the sofa and provided a good vantage point to the rest of the room. A pot, freshly washed and set out to dry, helped him fill in the rest of the kitchen. After this area of Georgie's apartment was filled out, Jon plopped himself down on the off-coloured, yet still very much comfortable sofa.

He felt a little guilty just entering her place like that but he had left his cellphone at home and he was still out of breath from lugging around all that shampoo with him. A quick rest on the couch wouldn't hurt anyone. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small orange patch being reflected back at him from the mirror on the coffee table and, to his great surprise and joy, saw the Admiral sleeping peacefully on one corner of the sofa. Strangely though, he wasn't reflected in the mirror world. Unfortunately, that meant that Jon couldn't pet him either, a revelation he was quite upset about.

Furthermore, the handheld mirror in front of him was too small to squeeze through, being the size of a dinner plate, and so Jon made himself get up and seek out Georgie's bathroom and hopefully climb through her wall mirror there. The mental image of squeezing himself through the small mirror-like a cartoon character and scaring everyone around him did make him chuckle though.

He recalled being able to squeeze his entire arm into a small cube back in his dream and the chuckle died on his lips. Entering a mirror dimension was one thing, entering it through an object that was way too small to fit through and defying all laws of physics was another. He'd rather stick to bigger mirrors and not think about that to save his sanity.

As he entered the bathroom, he was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of what looked to be two ... orbs? No that couldn't be right. As he carefully examined the floating objects closer, he realised that what he saw weren't orbs at all. They were eyeballs.

Two hazelnut coloured eyeballs were floating in front of her mirror at his eye line and Jon realised, rather horrified, that they belonged to Georgie. In a panic, he stumbled backwards against the door and quickly shuffle-crawled backwards until he was out of the bathroom and back in the living room. He didn't get a chance to look into the mirror, but based on the fact that the teenagers he had seen didn't show up in this dimension and the Admiral didn't either, Jon had a very strong hunch that something was very very wrong.

Jon had no idea what could have happened in the short time he was gone, but nothing like this had happened before! He quickly got to his feet and hurriedly walked back to the entrance to Georgie's apartment before he stopped dead in his tracks. If something had happened to Georgie, if some... _thing_ had taken her eyeballs and ripped them out of her skull, he would never forgive himself. He was reminded of the Sandman, and gave a horrified shudder when he remembered the accompanying statement.

No, he'd have to do something, he couldn't just leave her like this! Whatever happened to her, Jon would have to make sure she was alright and if she wasn't, take care of the thing that did this to her before it could hurt anyone else. Feeling braver than he actually was, Jon's gaze fell upon the wicker basket full of shampoo bottles near the doorway. The very heavy, possibly very deadly wicker basket.

He'd have a choice to make and before he could even finish the thought, he was already picking up the basket and heading for the bathroom once more.

The pair of floating eyeballs was still there and after a quick scan of the room, Jon noted that nothing was out of place. With the exception of a stark lack of colours, the bathroom was pretty much as it always was and no creature or possible eyeball-stealer was hiding about. Right then, that meant that it was probably in the real world somewhere, and based on the fact that the eyeballs were floating perfectly still in front of the mirror, Jon concluded that that was where Georgie must be.

Or whatever was left of her in any case.

Jon shuddered at the thought before pushing it aside and hoped that he wouldn't find the body of his mangled friend with her eyeballs ripped out of her skull lying on the ground. Since all time was frozen, that would mean that whatever had done this was most likely still there and Jon was careful to avert his gaze from the mirror in front of him.

If he did it right, he could hopefully stun the damn thing with what must easily be 1 ton of glass containers and then try and take it out somehow. Maybe it would die from blunt force trauma immediately and Jon wouldn't have to scramble about pathetically as his self-defence skills were almost non-existent. Daisy had once tried to teach him some manoeuvres but all that ended up happening was that he gained a couple more bruises.

By all logic, Jon should have probably hightailed it out of her apartment immediately and gone off to spend the night in the archives or something. But he wouldn't leave Georgie behind, he would never be able to forgive himself if he did.

And so, with clear determination, Jon braced himself. He turned his gaze towards the mirror, ran at it with as much strength as he could muster, and let out an accompanying battle cry in hopes of catching the creature off guard, and then jumped right through.

Now, if Jon had bothered to stop and think for just a little while longer, he would have realised several problems with this plan.

First and foremost, the mirror was located off the ground and had a sink in front of it. So as soon as he jumped through, he got about halfway before stopping at his midsection with a small humph. Secondly, the wicker basket he had used was constructed in his own mirror dimension, and as soon as Jon emerged from the portal, all of the shampoo bottles he'd carried with him would have spilt onto the ground with a resounding shattering sound.

Thankfully his pitiful jump and lack of a running start, which ended up with him hanging out of the mirror and now leaning over the sink with his lower body still stuck on the other side, managed to tip the basket over the sink. This safely deposited the bottles inside of said sink with a clang, before the basket shattered with a sharp sound, as if a mirror had just been thrown to the ground, and disappeared from existence.

And thirdly, in the confusion of it all, Jon completely forgot that it was 2 am on a Wednesday. Which was about the time Georgie usually finished up her recording. Perhaps if he had actually considered any of these 3 points things would have gone differently, but as it stood the following happened instead:

Jon's scream paired with his abrupt emergence from the mirror managed to startle Georgie, who was currently in the middle of brushing her teeth in the mirror. She immediately slipped backwards on the ground, sending both toothbrush and toothpaste flying, and left out a shrill scream which, paired with the sound of the shattered basket, startled Jon who let out a much higher-pitched scream of his own in return.

This, in turn, prompted Georgie to frantically grab the plunger next to the toilet and immediately throw it in Jon's general direction and hitting him square in the mouth before dropping to the ground with a thump.

'Well', Jon thought as his dazed head dropped to hang over the sink, 'so she is still affected by jumpscares, good to know.'

"OH OH, WHAT THE HELL", Georgie yelled as she rapidly picked herself off of the ground, "IF YOU'RE HERE TO EAT ME I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I'M A BLACKBELT IN KARATE!!!"

She lunged for the fallen plunger and waved it around in front of her in a threatening manner.

Jon shook his head, trying to recover from the heart attack he had just lived through, and carefully lifted his torso upwards by holding onto the sink. He didn't actually know if she was a blackbelt but he'd rather not find out.

"Georgie it's me", he said quickly upon noticing that she readied herself for a harder swing, "sorry I mistook you for a monster", he added sheepishly.

"Mistook ME for a monster??", Georgie sputtered, "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO JUMPED THROUGH MY MIRROR LIKE THE THING IN THE FUCKING SHINING".

Jon winced at her harsh, albeit deserved, scream and continued carefully while holding one arm in front of his face like a shield, "I'm sorry I kind of had to flee from my apartment and I know it's late but I uhh... I found the shampoo?" he tried placatingly while smiling at her hesitantly.

She narrowed her eyes at him and, although Jon could see that he managed to calm her down somewhat, stepped forward and held the toilet plunger inches on front of his face said in a guttural voice, " _EXPLAIN_ "

Jon nodded quickly and, upon realising that he was still very much stuck and hanging halfway out of her mirror, turned to her and with a hesitant smile and asked, "Uh, little help here?"

Georgie did not look amused.

\---------------------------

Later, once Georgie had helped pull him out of her mirror and Jon had helped her clean the toothpaste off of her walls, they were sitting on her living room couch. Georgie had given him an icepack for his jaw and Jon was waiting for the tingling feeling in his lower torso to lessen. Apparently hanging halfway between dimension left him feeling tingly, good to know. Georgie had made herself a cup of tea and was sitting on the sofa with the Admiral next to her while Jon slowly began explaining the last couple of hours to her.

The shampoo had long been stored away, much to Georgie's delight at the successful heist they had accidentally pulled off, and Jon was never more glad about thinking to bring a gift before crashing on someone's couch before.

She would have most likely maimed him if he had shown up with nothing to make up for it.

Well. At the very least she would have been quite cross with him which Jon considered to be just as bad as a death sentence.

"So you thought some monster had stolen my eyeballs and you were out to get revenge by clobbering it to death with a bunch of shampoo?", Georgie asked eventually.

Jon nodded slightly embarrassed, "Well, you weren't there! I just saw two eyeballs floating and feared the worst, I figured since I'd have the element of surprise I could maybe take it down!"

"And you didn't bother to _check_ by looking out of the mirror first?", Georgie pressed while shifting her teacup to one hand so she could pet the sleeping Admiral with the other, "Would have saved me from having a heart attack, Jon."

"I thought you couldn't feel fear", Jon added to that.

Georgie squinted at him suspiciously, "Now I'm pretty sure I never told you that before, but knowing about your _condition_ I'll let it slide. Oh and did it never occur to you that, oh I don't know, that eyes are also reflective???", Georgie gestured with her one free hand wildly.

Jon winced a bit. He didn't mean to ever mention that, as it was a sensitive subject, but he was just too riled up at the moment to think properly, he'd have to be more careful.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to let that slip. In my defence, you would have told me yourself eventually", if one considered compelling someone as doing it out of their one volition that is, "And it's not like I could have known! None of the other people I saw showed up inside there, not even the Admiral did!"

Georgie let out a huff at that, "Well, considering that so far you have had to have direct eye contact with reflective objects to use them then maybe it's safe to say that it was because I was looking directly at the mirror while brushing my teeth. I mean, did the teens you saw on your way here look straight into their own reflection?"

Jon considered this for a while and slumped, "No, I don't think they did. Now that I think about it, the Admiral also had his eyes closed. It is still pretty unsettling to think about though."

She hummed, deep in thought, "True, what's the point though? It's not like you can jump out of people's eyeballs can you?"

Jon stiffened at that and eventually, an uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

"Wait", Georgie said slowly, " _Can_ you?"

"I... I would rather not test that theory", Jon replied somewhat disturbed at the mental image.

"Alright, topic change", she said firmly, "I'm going to make myself more tea, you can crash on the couch for the night."

"Oh well, I can't exactly...", Jon piped in awkwardly.

"Ah right, nocturnal and all that", Georgie sighed, "well are you sure you don't want any tea? I've recently gotten some mint tea in the mail, it's pretty good!"

"Yeah sure, after that I definitely need to calm down", Jon replied. He decided to scoot over next to the Admiral who gave a soft questioning 'hrmpf' sound which Jon could only interpret as 'wtf'. Ah so understanding animals still worked, good to know.

"So what part of entering other dimensions has to do with your po- your _condition_ ", Georgie asked, returning with two steaming mugs and handing one to Jon.

He gratefully accepted the cup, "Thank you. I'm not entirely sure, but I can make an educated guess. Let's just say due to certain circumstances I may have gained a new _advantage,_ so to say. Not here though, maybe we can talk about it back _there,_ If you catch my drift. I'm not entirely sure there isn't anyone listening in, there might be spiders about."

Georgie blinked at him tiredly, "I have several questions I'd like to ask but first, I'll need a nap. It is 3 in the morning and I just finished a 10-hour recording session, Jon. Out of all the times to drop by this has got to be the worst."

"Oh!", Jon let out with some embarrassment, "I forgot, I'm so sorry! Go get rest Georgie, I'll just uh, watch TV without the sound or something."

Georgie nodded and now that Jon was paying more attention, he could see the eye bags on her face. He remembered that she usually lost an entire day to her recording session and with a stab of guilt he remembered that he had kept her up far longer than necessary. She grabbed her still steaming cup and made for her bedroom.

"It's fine I'm not too mad or anything, just warn me ahead of time, please. Goodnight Jon"

"Will do, Goodnight Georgie", he said quietly.

"Oh, and Jon?", she asked while turning to face him once more.

"Yeah?", he asked.

"Thanks for trying to avenge me, even if I wasn't really in danger.", she said with a small smile.

Jon nodded, "I wouldn't just leave you behind, I'm done running away at this point."

Georgie nodded calmly, "Oh and take a shower, you smell like a gym locker room", she finished with a shit-eating grin.

Jon froze before snorting in amusement as he watched her leave.

A quick check did indeed confirm what she said was true and he recoiled in disgust, he _did_ smell like a gym locker room. Any exercise was surely not worth the effort.

With a sigh, he got up and headed for her bathroom once more. If he stayed under the spray long enough, his clothes would have a chance to wash and dry by the time he got out.

\--------------------------------------------

When Jon got out of the shower and pulled his freshly dried clothes out of the washer, it was 5 am, which meant he had a couple of hours to burn before being able to finally crash on the sofa. There was no way he could go into work today and returning to his apartment while he was still drowsy wasn't an option either. He needed to be well-rested at the very least before attempting to face Michael again. Maybe also possibly armed.

He couldn't stay at Georgie's place indefinitely either as that would most likely put her into actual danger.

He decided to give Tim a quick call instead and went to the kitchen to use Georgie's landline. Leaving his phone at home was a mistake but thankfully being an avatar of the Eye allowed him to retain more information. Like knowing specific statement numbers or in this case, his friend's phone number. After a couple of rings, the call went through.

"Hello?", a tired voice answered him.

"Hello Tim it's Jon, sorry to disturb you this early."

"Jon? Oh yeah, whatsup?", Tim drawled followed by a heavy yawn. Ah, that's right Tim wasn't a morning person either.

"Could you tell Elias I won't be coming into work today? I kind of have an emergency going on right now and-"

"Yeah s' fine, what should I say?", Tim cut him off, clearly wanting to go back to bed as quickly as possible.

"Uh I don't really-", Jon began, racking his brain for a good excuse. It's not like he could tell them about Michael just yet, he wasn't even supposed to show up until much later!

"How about I just tell him you died or something? Does that sound good?", Tim mumbled groggily over the line.

Jon snorted, "Yeah, that'll do thanks Tim"

"No problem boss, goodnight".

Jon heard the line disconnect and put the phone back on its stand. Well, Tim would surely come up with something else on the fly if needed. Or maybe Jon wouldn't make it to see another sunrise when going to see Michael, either way, he was excused from work and that was all that really mattered right now.

After giving the Admiral his breakfast and putting a mark on his feeding schedule, Jon decided to leave briefly and grab a change of clothes and his phone from his apartment, if Michael was still there he would have to try grabbing it without stepping out of the mirror where he was safe. He made his way back to Georgie's mirror and upon a quick confirmation that Elias wasn't looking, climbed inside.

It made sense though unless Elias somehow managed to go without sleep, he would most definitely still be asleep at 5 am on a weekday. Jon filed that information away for later use just in case he'd decide to go after the man in the near future.

Once he was back inside the mirror world, Jon noted with some satisfaction that the spaces he had 'filled out' previously were still very much there. He decided to take his time on his way back to the apartment. While walking the streets back, Jon made sure to fill out every little detail he had overlooked on his frantic run from Michael. Now that he thought about it, it was rather silly of him to run in the first place as he could spend an eternity in here without the outside world changing in the slightest.

He did have a hunch as to how he was suddenly able to enter mirrors though. The only problem was, he couldn't exactly explain it to Georgie without revealing that he didn't just see the future, but instead had lived it. He felt a little bad about keeping her in the dark like this, especially after she helped him out so often, but there was no way he could tell her the whole story.

So far, the only conclusion he came to was that the apocalypse had given him enough of a power boost to gain a new power. Or maybe even several powers, Jon still didn't know what else he was capable of. The mirror world was one thing, but his weird connection to the passage of time itself was an entirely different matter. He remembered that Elias had gained the ability to look through any eyes, be they drawn or made out of plastic, after the first watcher's crown ritual had failed. If the failed ritual gave him that ability, then Jon could hazard a guess that the successful end of the world would yield an entirely different and more powerful result.

The Eye may no longer occupy the sky itself, but Jon was pretty sure the ability to bend time was not something that it had been capable of before. Maybe the enormous amount of power it received by feeding off of the dead world left Jon with a small residue and as such he could tell time more accurately? Either way, if the Eye itself granted him the power or if that was something he had gained over time in the apocalyptic wasteland, he couldn't say. Back then, time had mattered very little in their journey. Jon could also safely say that that ability must be unique to himself, he didn't remember sharing Elias' ability and at the very least he wouldn't have to worry about the other entering this world.

Good. One thing less to worry about.

Jon eventually made his way back home, thankfully without any more eyeballs floating about as very few people were out so early and none of them happened to look into a reflective surface, and he cautiously entered his apartment. It looked like Michael had left, perhaps losing interest after not being able to follow after Jon, but he wouldn't risk it. Just in case Michael was still hiding in the refrigerator, which Jon was still stumped about. Yet another thing he'd have to investigate later. Either way, Jon made his way to his bedroom and, after a quick check to make sure the coast was still clear, stepped out of his wall mirror.

It got easier the more he did it and Jon sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to deal with any more supernatural shenanigans. He quickly grabbed a change of clothes from his wardrobe before taking his phone and the charger from his bedside table as well. As he looked around, he spotted his work bag which he had left in his bedroom, after going to shower the night before, and snatched it up as well before hurriedly stepping back inside the mirror. Once he was inside, he let out a breath and willed himself to relax.

At least nothing could get to him while he was inside this dimension. He wondered if that's how Michael and Helen usually felt when they were inside their own hallways. No wonder they barely stepped outside with the exception of tracking down prey. Jon carefully put his belongings in his work bag, after confirming his wallet and tape recorder were still safely tucked away inside, and headed for the monochrome front door. It was a shame this dimension didn't have proper colours, even though the lack of them was easier on the eyes, Jon still missed the colourful outside world.

At least that made it easier to tell this dimension apart from the real world.

On his way down the staircase of his apartment, Jon remembered Gertrude's tapes and made a mental note to retrieve them at some point. To do so he'd have to enter the copy of the institute though, and for now he'd have to settle for dealing with one thing at a time while that was still possible. The tapes could wait, not like Jon hadn't read most of them anyway.

Once he returned to Georgie's apartment, he made sure to check that no one was standing in front of the bathroom mirror before climbing out carefully. He went back into the kitchen and brewed himself another cup of tea before settling in front of the television and turning down the sound on low as to not to disturb her. The Admiral joined him eventually, having finished his food and Jon relaxed back into the cushions until 9 am rolled around.

He remembered that he had wanted to schedule a meeting though, and pulled his phone out of his bag before dialling the number of the real estate agency he had looked up online. A very chipper receptionist greeted him (Jon had no idea how these people managed to be up and awake at 9 am in the morning, though that was most likely his nocturnal schedule talking) and Jon requested an appointment with one Helen Richardson for the weekend to get some advice and narrow down his house choices a bit.

It was clear that the receptionist seemed a bit put off by his request, asking for a specific realtor was probably not common, but after Jon dropped that some of his friends had recommended her for her professionalism, she let the matter drop. Jon ended the call with the promise to turn up early Saturday afternoon with his 'partner' in town. God, she probably thought she had talked to a rich couple or something, a hilarious mental image in his opinion, anyone with eyes in their head could see that they weren't together.

As soon as it was safe for him to do so though, he unfolded the thin blanket Georgie had left for him and fell into a deep sleep. Although he didn't have any specific dreams, which was always a victory in his opinion, he was still roused from his slumber earlier than anticipated. Fortunately, the disturbance came from soft orange paws and a voice resembling Georgie's own calling his name. Opening his eyes, he saw the Admiral looking down at him and, after getting up groggily, Jon confirmed that it was 2 pm right now.

He had slept for about 5 hours, slightly more than usual, and eventually got up to feed the Admiral, the latter who was letting out a continues string of 'Jon!''s to get his attention. Once he placed a tic on the chart, Jon returned to the sofa and fell back asleep.

The next time he woke up, it was the smell of bacon that woke him. Georgie was humming in the kitchen, apparently making eggs and bacon as a sort of afternoon breakfast as it now was 6 pm, and Jon made himself get up for the promise of food. Apart from the cereal, he hadn't eaten anything else in the last couple of hours.

He entered her bathroom and quickly changed. As he was tucking away his pyjamas in his bag a thought occurred to him. He took the neatly folded stack of clothes out of his bag and approached the mirror once more.

If he and Georgie had thrown the shampoo bottles inside at the spa, how did they end up back at his place? Sure, before he had constructed a copy of the real world outside he had been walking on an endless plane with no clear direction, but surely he hadn't been walking so long to be able to reach the spa. Also, the apple was lying nearby and Jon knew for a fact he had thrown it inside the mirror in his own home.

Which meant one of two things, either the Eye had clustered these objects together for him to find, or he had somehow unconsciously teleported them to wherever he wanted them to be.

Jon figured that he could just get the things back by walking back to Georgie's place anyway and decided to take the risk. After carefully concentrating on his own bedroom and also mentally asking the Eye to put them there just to be sure, he placed the small pile inside.

Once that was done, he readjusted his clothes in the mirror as soon as the glow of the surface ebbed away, and stepped outside after unlocking the bathroom door. All in all, he looked a whole lot more put together than he felt. He thanked the sinfully expensive shampoo and body wash for that.

"Good morning", Georgie greeted him, "or rather afternoon. Did you leave in your pyjamas to get a change of clothes?", she asked with some amusement.

"No ah, I took the erm... shortcut", Jon responded.

"Ah right", Georgie nodded in understanding, "since you've done me the service of feeding the little freeloader, I'll share the fruit of my labour with you. Now that you've levelled up, you're gonna need some more powerful potions."

Jon blinked at her slowly, before understanding dawned on him and let out a chuckle, "Well this warlock needs a big mana potion as well, got any coffee as well?"

Georgie snorted, "Yeah in the cupboard, brew me a cup as well please, I'll need the energy to edit the episode today."

Jon nodded and got to work, the sun was still out and coated the room in a pleasing orange-yellow tint. The coffee machine was brewing and gave off a nice smell together with the bacon and eggs frying and the radio was playing softly next to the sleeping Admiral who had decided to settle down on his favourite window seat.

All in all, life really wasn't all that bad. Jon really, really hoped he would be able to convince Michael not to kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also a small recap what Jon has been through in just one week:  
> Monday: Michaels first visit  
> Tuesday: Assistant chat over lunch and Jon climbs into the mirror during the night  
> Wednesday: this chapter  
> so ya stressful week for Jon and its only going to get better with Michael  
> Obligatory leave a comment if you liked it, please!


	14. Coffee talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon finally has a chat with Michael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I held back on messed up Spiral induced horror in this one because I imagine Michael trying to be civil

Jon was busy digging into his eggs when he heard the Admiral make an inquisitive noise from the windowsill. Looking up, he saw Georgie scooping up the furball and carefully placing him on the counter before opening the window. He remembered that she had installed a net cover on the opening after an incident where the Admiral was trying to catch a bird and almost fell out. Thankfully, Jon had been able to catch the little troublemaker just in time before he fell to his doom but it was more than enough reason for Georgie to install a safety net over the window.

Unfortunately, they still had to open it sometimes after cooking to get rid of the smell and Georgie was always very careful to keep the Admiral away from it whenever that happened. Being a cat, however, meant that the little criminal himself didn't understand the thought process behind this odd ritual and although he was usually good at staying off the windowsill when it happened, didn't mean that he wouldn't complain loudly.

Now Jon remembered that the Admirals yowls never really lasted for long and weren't very loud either but it was a whole lot more hilarious realizing the little furball was actually screaming Georgie's name in indignation mixed in with a couple of 'No!''s as well.

"Don't you yell at your mother", Jon scolded the orange menace in question.

"Nooooooo, Jon!", the Admiral responded in turn, "Jooooooon, Georgie Nooooooo"

Jon laughed at that, putting away his empty plate in the sink to wash later before heading over to the counter and appeasing the little troublemaker with lots of petting and scritches.

"Biiiirds", the Admiral whined one last time before succumbing to the affections and deciding that receiving scritches was a better alternative.

"Yes I know there are birds outside but you can't sit there when the windows open", Jon responded in kind.

"Jon! Up!", the Admiral mewed and got up on his hind legs to indicate that he wanted to perch himself on Jon's shoulder rather than sit on the counter. Jon agreed that that would be an agreeable trade and held out his arms.

"Alright, you can jump up, but be careful!"

The orange fiend, successful at striking a most agreeable bargain, perched himself on the Archivist's shoulders and looked upon his kingdom in pride. Jon thought he looked especially regal.

"Now what are you two babbling on about?", Georgie piped up from the stove where she was making some hashbrowns as snacks for later, "Jon are you seriously encouraging conversation with the little stink man? You know studies show that it encourages them to be more vocal and I'd rather not be woken up by yowling every day."

She did have a point there, "He's a fine gentleman, he'd never yell at a lady!", he responded with the indignation of a nanny that was responsible for an 18th century, 6 year old noble before snorting in amusement and continuing, "besides it's not every day I get to converse with animals, you'd be surprised, but the birds on my way to work usually do just scream instead of actually communicating, I wonder if that's a side effect of living in proximity to humans of if that's just how birds are."

"Maybe that's just a pigeon trait? Can't imagine they'd be smart enough to come up with a comprehensive language. Either that or the loud noises of the city made them go bonkers.", Georgie responded with no small degree of amusement.

"I suppose if you spend all day around loud cars and people you'd end up like that too", Jon responded as he made his way over to the coffee machine to get another cup, all the while carefully balancing the Admiral on his shoulders.

"Yuck!", said the proud sovereign, momentarily distracted from overseeing his empire at the putrid smell of coffee beans.

"It's not yuck!", Jon responded as he put his mug down and pressed the button for yet another macchiato, "I need it for energy, your highness, otherwise this day is going to be a total bust!"

Now Jon didn't usually go for coffee, but it was the quickest way to shake himself awake and gain a quick power boost which he desperately needed if he wanted to face Michael later on. He still didn't know how to approach the latter but he'd have more time to plan back at his apartment.

"Man, it actually does sound like you two are having a conversation. I mean you time your responses so perfectly to his little adorable meows", Georgie chuckled as she put the food into a Tupperware container for later, "maybe I should make a little intermission thing for the podcast, call it "The Admiral's corner" and just let people ask questions and gauge a response from the little furball via microphone."

"Oh yeah I bet that would increase your following by like a billion overnight, and I'm not pretending, I legitimately can understand everything he says. It's usually basic words but I can usually gauge the meaning based on his tone and such.", Jon responded as he leaned against the counter sipping from his mug.

"Yeah right, good one Jon. Maybe we can introduce you as a reoccurring character, Jon the animal whisperer."

Jon remained purposefully quiet, knowing that the easiest way was to just wait until Georgie figured it out on her own rather than argue his point which would take way longer and was usually met with disbelief and accusations of lies. Well not by her, but it had been a common enough occurrence in the past and he really didn't want to be yelled at again. Letting others make their own conclusion was the safest bet.

Eventually though, Georgie's gears must have stopped moving as she finished processing the information and she looked over her shoulder at him.

"You're fucking with me."

Jon shook his head and smiled into his cup.

Georgie squinted at him before grunting, "Prove it Eyeman"

He wasn't exactly sure how to go about this but Jon carefully plucked the Admiral from his shoulders and held him at eye height. Hopefully, the communication thing would go both ways as it did with Xiaoling, on his trip to the Pu Songling Research Center.

"Admiral, could you get me my phone charger from the kitchen, please? It looks similar to a String but white and it has a small connecter... er box block hanging on one end of it."

After no response Jon decided to sweeten the deal a bit, "I'll trade you for some kitty snacks."

The Admiral stared at him for a while before slowly blinking at him and responding with a meowed 'Yes'.

Jon let the good boy on the ground and watched as the small furball pranced over into the living room. He really hoped his description of the charger would be enough for the Admiral to find what he was looking for.

"No fucking way", Georgie said quietly from behind him.

Sure enough, after some scratching noises from the living room, the Admiral came into view. Dutifully carrying the phone charger in his maw and beaming with pride at a job well done.

"Thank you Admiral", Jon responded warmly as he crouched down to take the charger and scritch the Admiral under his chin. As promised, Jon retrieved a packet of chicken flavoured snacks from Georgie's kitchen drawer and put a couple of them into the Admiral's food bowl.

He got back up and turned to an awestruck Georgie with a smile, "See? I'd never lie!" That last part wasn't entirely true but when it came to telling her about his powers it was true enough.

Georgie stared at the Admiral as he was eating his hard-earned treats before breaking into a huge grin, "Jon that's amazing! Does he talk in full sentences? Does he have a name for me as well?? Oh, Oh does he know how much I love him??"

Jon felt a warm feeling spreading in his chest and slightly flushed at the evident enthusiasm in her voice, "Well he can say words and strings them together as I said, apart from that he calls you by your name and yes I do believe he knows."

Georgie kept grinning, basically vibrating with excitement, "Oh you HAVE to translate for me at some point, maybe even on the show! Oh, that's amazing, do you have any idea how cool that is?!"

Jon, who was not used to receiving such praise especially when it came to his powers, smiled back. Her enthusiasm was extremely contagious.

"I can try, though I don't know how well technology reacts to me... well, _utilising_ my abilities. But I can definitely do it in private!"

She didn't seem all too put off by his rebuttal, "Ah right, wouldn't want you to be dissected by the government or something! Do you have time now?? Surely you can skip work again no????"

Jon openly laughed at that, "Well, maybe if Tim actually told my boss I died, but otherwise I do still need to come into work. Not everyone is living on their own schedule."

Georgie pouted, "Jon, you literally never have to work a day in your life again, why do you even bother to come into work at all?"

He rubbed at his neck, admittedly she did have a point there, "Well, I wouldn't leave my coworkers hanging like that. We're already overworked with such a massive workload, I don't want to make it worse on them."

Again, technically not a lie. There was no rule stating that he would stop being the Archivist as soon as he left the Institute for good. It's not like his powers were tied to a single place after all. However, Jon did still depend on the place for statements unless he wanted to go out and well... _hunt_ for his food. There was also the issue that his coworkers weren't as lucky as him in that regard. They couldn't leave without becoming sick and it would be selfish of him to leave them behind.

"Also it's already 7 pm right now, I still need to get some shopping done as well as making preparations. I really don't want to impose any longer."

Georgie may have let him hide out in her apartment when the police were looking for him, but that didn't mean he wanted to put her into a similar position again when it came to Michael. No, this time Jon would sort out his problems himself without dragging others down with him.

Georgie seemed to slump at that a little before relaxing against the counter once more, "Well, I do need to edit that episode today.", she said with a sad sigh.

"Another time", Jon said placatingly, "maybe on the weekend when I have more time."

"Another time", Georgie nodded in agreement before continuing in a teasing voice, "I'll hold you to it!"

Jon chuckled before placing his now empty mug into the dishwasher, bidding the now sated orange beast goodbye and putting away his charger into his bag as he walked to the door with Georgie trailing after him to see him out.

"Don't worry I'll be there, I'll even bring some snacks next time."

He could only hope he could fulfil that promise and she wouldn't be informed by the police when his dead body inadvertently washed up somewhere.

He straightened his bag, hugged Georgie goodbye (perhaps a tad longer than he would have), and made his way back home.

\------------------------------------------------

Precisely at 9:13, which Jon's perfectly timed internal clock informed him off, Jon returned to his apartment, grocery bags in hand. He usually did his shopping on Friday but he decided that some comfort food would help him settle his nerves a bit. That and he decided to buy more groceries to replace anything else Michael might have stuck his hands in. Better safe than sorry.

He opened his front door and immediately noticed something was off. It wasn't so much that something was amiss or that his apartment looked any different, it merely felt... occupied somehow. As if something, or rather someone, that didn't belong was taking up space within.

Jon was immediately on guard and carefully took off his shoes before quietly walking inside with his bags. He hoped that he would be able to make it to the kitchen and reach the drawer where he kept his 2 good knives (god why didn't he buy a knife block sooner???) and hopefully fend off the assailant long enough to make a run for it as the noise of the front door opening indicated his arrival.

Either that or the cans of tomato sauce would have to do as a makeshift weapon, if he managed to swing his shopping bags fast enough that is.

Something told him to stay though, a feeling he was becoming more familiar with the longer he spent in this new, or rather old, world. The Eye wanted something and so far, Jon's own curiosity won out over any common sense either way. There really wasn't much of a choice there.

The way his apartment was structured, allowed for a clear view of the kitchen, bathroom, and living room from the entrance. However, the area where his work desk and sofa were, was hidden behind a corner. From this angle, Jon couldn't see whoever was inside but by the looks of his wallpaper, which seemed to peel itself off into tightly curled spirals, he could make an educated guess.

As he carefully peeked around the corner, Jon saw Michael sitting on his sofa in front of the small coffee table. Jon noted that he seemed to have chosen to appear in his human disguise today and was not, as Jon first suspected, waiting to jump him the moment he returned home. Apart from the wallpaper peeling itself off in what looked to be an anxious manner, though Jon was sure that was yet another trick to lure him into a sense of security, nothing else seemed amiss.

No, what struck Jon as odd was the way Michael chose to appear in front of him. The man was sitting at the edge of the sofa, almost hunching over himself as he held his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes Jon realized, and semi leaning against the armrest. Two cups of takeaway coffee were in front of him from a coffee shop Jon vaguely remembered the name off and were, by the looks of it, still steaming as if brewed mere moments ago. He also looked tired, really tired. Definitely a set up then, exhaustion wasn't a thing for the avatars, at least not in the human definition of it. They didn't need sleep if they were fell fed after all.

Jon was sure that that had to be another attempt at catching him off guard, Michael did go after him in the bathroom, and was careful in his approach in order to get a closer look. Unfortunately for him, the plastic bags he was carrying made a rustling sound as soon as he stepped around the corner and accidentally knocked them against the wall and Michael's head snapped up from his hands at the noise and towards him.

For a while, the two merely stared at each other until Jon's mouth decided to take initiative before his brain had the chance to catch up.

"Erm... apologies for the wait, I had to run to the store and get some groceries as I was running low.. and yeah."

Jon had no clue why he decided to apologize for being late in his own damn home as if this was some sort of appointment the two set up in advance and Jon had inconvenienced Michael by making him wait. This only seemed to make the other more tired somewhat as he slowly leaned back into the sofa and continued to rub at his face with both hands.

"So erm... what can I do for you I suppose?", Jon continued awkwardly. Somehow this entire confrontation didn't go as planned and he had no idea how to react to it.

With a sigh, Michael finally decided to deign him with an answer, "Take a seat Archivist", and gestured with one hand to the armchair next to the sofa while the other continued to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Jon figured that the best approach here would be to simply see how this would turn out and carefully made his way over. After putting down his grocery bags and taking off his jacket and bag, all the while Michael stared at the ceiling in what seemed to be tired resignation, he took a seat on the armchair.

"Err.. sorry for the mess I didn't exactly expect any guests, especially this late in the day.", Jon continued not knowing what else to say and not used to being given the silent treatment from the distortion. His living room was indeed filled with messy pillows and blankets as well as boxes of cookies and other snacks. Michael must have pushed some of it to one side in order to make enough room to sit on the couch.

Michael continued to stare up at the ceiling whilst leaning against the sofa before gesturing to one of the coffees on the table and sighing out, "macchiato".

Jon took that as silent permission that one of the cups was meant for him and decided to grab the one closest to him. The foam cup seemed to still be piping hot and he decided to wait for it to cool down so he wouldn't burn his tongue. If it wasn't for the fact that Jon could see the eyebags under Michael's eyes and the evident exhaustion on his features, he'd have to guess that the other looked like he was about to make a serious business proposition.

An awkward silence filled the room until Michael finally decided to speak again, "Archivist, I have had some time to think on our... previous encounters and I've come to a conclusion."

"Oh?", Jon commented after he realised Michael expected some sort of answer from him.

"It is most unfortunate indeed as I usually avoid such pleasantries with others but recent happenings have left us... rather confused, one could say. It is not something we experience often.", that last part was said in an accusatory tone as Michael squinted at Jon disgruntedly.

"Well...", Jon began not knowing what else he could say to that, "I suppose for someone like you that might be true."

Michael began to slowly peel himself off of the backrest of the sofa, like sticky dough being pulled off of the counter, and hunkered down to stare at him. It all gave Jon the impression that the other had just done the visual equivalent of pulling himself together. It was all rather dramatic in Jon's opinion.

"I am not a who, Archivist, I am a what."

Jon stared at the other for a while before his sleep-deprived brain finally caught up and he recalled the first time they have had this conversation.

"Ah yes... After all, how could a melody describe itself?", Jon finished for him.

Michael now squinted at him in suspicion, "Yes. That is an apt allegory one could make, I suppose."

Jon hummed, deep in thought, "Well, there are several different possible descriptors that one could use. You can describe a melody as peppy, quiet, loud, fast, slow..."

He trailed off as he watched Michael sink in on himself, like an accordion being pressed together or a balloon deflating, and quickly cut himself off by clearing his throat. The other looked slightly defeated, even his blond long hair seemed to almost flatten from the supposed strain, and Jon decided to switch topics. As he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his leg brushed against the bag of groceries and he got an idea. By now it was dark out, indicating that the short conversation took way longer than Jon thought, and the lack of lights outside gave the room they were sitting in a rather ominous atmosphere.

He realised that they had been holding this conversation in the dark this whole time. Not that Jon could tell. He could see just as well in the dark as he did in the light. Unless it was more solid darkness, the kind one would never find their way out of, and his gaze fell upon the still steaming cup of coffee. Realising he would have to carry the conversation as Michael wasn't about to continue talking any time soon, Jon took initiative.

"Hey, not that the living room isn't a good place to talk, but I need to put these away", he said and gestured to the bags leaning against the chair, "so maybe we can continue this in the kitchen?"

Michael merely stared off into the distance, looking at a far off point in his living room, before eventually grunting out a resounding, "Sure."

Jon nodded and carefully picked up the bags and waited for Michael to get up as well before walking into his kitchen. There was no way he would let him out of his sight, no matter how complacent the other seemed.

"So have you thought about my offer?", Jon said, keeping his tone purposefully even. So far he was successful at keeping the compulsion out of his voice and he hoped he wouldn't slip up. Jon was too ill-prepared should a fight break out.

Michael didn't give a response, instead seating himself at the counter and watching Jon riffle through the bags. He seemed to be waiting for something and Jon was immediately on edge, though he tried to remain calm on the outside.

He figured Michael would answer him eventually and so he began putting away the products instead. Some cans of crushed tomatoes went into his pantry, a bundle of apples were carefully arranged on a large platter Jon had dug up from the back of his cabinet somewhere, and some milk products he left next to the fridge to be put away as soon as he was done with the rest.

He eventually got to the bottom of the bag, which contained the sturdier stuff such as cereal and milk cartons. Jon became aware of the fact that Michael was now full-blown staring at him and although he was more than used to the sensation, it still unsettled him for some reason. He left the cereal box on the counter and instead turned to open his fridge and put away the rest of his shopping. As he put away the last milk carton, his eyes fell on the potato salad.

Although nothing _looked_ to be out of place, as no bits or pieces of it were scattered about and the fridge looked clean enough, Jon figured it would be better to simply throw it away. Just in case. After all, he didn't know where Michael's hands had been and anything touched by the distortion was suspicious anyway. Furthermore, the entrance to the spiral's hallway had disappeared as well and Jon breathed a sigh of relief as it didn't look like it would be a permanent fixture in his home, but rather seemed to be a convenient entryway for Michael that could disappear after. He wondered if having his fridge connected to the distortion's hallways would drive up the electric bill.

Jon tossed the salad into the trash, giving Michael a halfassed assed attempt at an explanation by muttering 'Expired' under his breath without looking at the other. He was aware that the other was still looking at him and so he went over to grab the box. By now his hands were now sweating slightly and he remembered he still had the old half-empty box in his cabinet.

"Do you...er want some? I still have a box in the pantry.", Jon asked carefully.

"No.", came in a flat tone.

"Alright then", Jon sighed under his breath. He didn't even know why he bothered but his grandmother's ingrained lessons on hospitality and treating your guests right seemed to be still very much ingrained in his mind.

"Though if you're hungry I wouldn't be offended if you ate."

Jon froze as he put away the new box. He didn't know how to place the tone of voice Michael had used but it immediately put him on edge. Was Michael perhaps testing if Jon was still human enough to require regular food? How much did he know? It would be awkward not to eat now as Jon had already offered to share some of his food with him. In for a dime in for a dollar, after all. There was no way Jon would drop the act over a bowl of dried cornflakes and blow his cover after getting so far already.

"Sure", Jon managed to get out in a hopefully even-sounding tone, "I didn't have dinner yet."

He grabbed a bowl from the cabinet as well as a milk carton from the fridge and took out the half-empty box from his pantry. Michael seemed to almost be eager to watch him, as Jon could see him leaning forward on the counter with his hands under his chin and looking for all the world as if he was waiting for some sort of payoff.

At this point, Jon's nerves almost got the better of him, but he managed to keep his hand surprisingly steady as he poured the box into the bowl. He was pretty sure that he stopped breathing as he watched an avalanche of little miniature doorknobs spill over the bowl and onto the rest of the counter. He eventually startled and carefully tipped the box back up to prevent the mess from spilling on to the floor as well.

Silence fell upon the room.

Jon owlishly blinked at the bowl before remembering that Michael was still very much watching him and slowly, almost mechanical in his motion, grabbed the milk carton and poured the appropriate amount into the bowl. He didn't even look at the bowl anymore as he instead locked eyes with Michael. Jon scooped a bit into his spoon and carefully took a bite and chewed. Surprisingly enough, it still very much tasted like the chocolate crunch advertised on the box. Apart from the appearance and texture, it didn't taste all that different.

Michael merely stared at him, mouth open in horrified bewilderment as he watched Jon take another bite and then another more until eventually, the bowl was empty. It felt like the buildup for a joke with none of the payoff. Jon eventually cleared his throat once more, deciding that he had won whatever standoff this was supposed to be.

"You sure you don't want any?"

"No", Michael grit out as he slumped over the counter, hands reaching up to rub at his face. It looked surprisingly human for something that defined itself as the manifestation of insanity.

"I was kind of hoping to have this conversation at a more... appropriate location but I figure I might as well do it now."

"Get on with it", Michael grit out in annoyance. He leaned back on the barstool, almost as if he was bending over an invisible back of a chair, and began twisting his shape in midair. Jon watched in fascination as the human disguise the other had put on, seemed to peel itself off (almost in an anxious manner, Jon vaguely thought), and his hands started to lengthen and become sharper by the second. His apartment seemed to twist in on itself as well, cabinets and fridge lengthening and twisting in a myriad of colours, doorway bending like an amusement park funhouse mirror, the bowl in front of him flattening to a flat circle and the cereal-doorknobs rattle ominously on the floor and counter. Jon couldn't tear his eyes off of it.

Eventually, Michael seemed to finish whatever display it put on (Jon was sure it was meant to be intimidating) and instead leaned its massive form forward over the counter, perching his arms like a predator ready to pounce, and dug his nails into the wood there, wood curls falling to the floor.

A tense silence took over the room before Jon shook himself out of his stupor and looked to the very much dangerous creature before him, remembering what he wanted to talk about in the first place.

"I need a favour"

The silence stretched on and although Jon couldn't make out a clear face in the twisting shapes of the other's body, he would guess that the other seemed to be surprised by that.

"What?", the other asked, garbled static accompanying his voice and leaving Jon with an aftertaste of mint in the back of his throat.

"A favour", Jon repeated, "I need a piece of you to evade prying eyes."

Michael did the equivalent of what Jon considered to be a blink at him, colours twisting on what Jon estimated to be his head and he hurried to add, "Wait hold on that came out wrong. What I mean to say is, I need something touched by the distortion to carry around with me, not like... a literal body part of yours.", now somewhat embarrassed, as he realised how his words sounded out of context.

After yet another moment of silence, Jon continued to prattle on, "Although I'm sure a body part would also work, though I figure that would probably be painful for you, I figure something like a piece of cloth or something small enough to transport and keep hidden you know?", god what was it with him and repeating words whenever he was nervous?

Michael continued to stare at him.

"I'd pay you back, obviously. I don't expect anything free of charge, as I said it could be a 'You scratch my back, I scratch yours' kind of situation. If that makes sense?"

Michael seemed to, quite literally, unwind the longer Jon's nervous ramblings went on and now stared at the counter where the comically large wood curls peeled themselves off.

After Jon finished his ramblings, Michael looked up at him.

"I'll think about it Archivist", he said in a calmer, though still slightly terse tone.

And before Jon knew what was happening, his kitchen twisted itself back into its normal state and Michael had disappeared through the refrigeration door.

As soon as he left, Jon's sense of time returned to him and he realized with a start that it was now Thursday, 7 am in the morning, and his alarm was due to ring soon. He sighed in resignation, after willing his tense shoulders to relax, as he wouldn't be able to catch up on his favourite shows and headed for the shower to freshen up before returning to work and starting the new day.

As far as he could tell, the coffee on the counter was still piping hot. The spiral's sense for the dramatics once again proved to be more of a hassle than he expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Michael, head in his hands and so very tired: please Archivist just do one thing that is normal  
> Jon, smiling eating the doorknobs in order not to get stabbed: I don't know what you mean :)  
> Not featured: Elias having a breakdown after watching Jon go home, turn up in a different apartment after Tim told him Jon wouldn't be coming in and suddenly have his vision be distorted as soon as Jon returns to his apartment.  
> Also, I'm not sure yet but I might include a small segment of the 3 asshole grandpa team at some point during one of their 'wagers' where Elias gets to bitch a little


	15. Visions of the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon takes a nap (yes it's important to mention)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact that meetup segment was labelled 'elias grandpa club freakout thursday' in my notes  
> also I'm not dead school just sucked the life out of me for 2 months

Wednesday morning Elias Bouchard walked into his institute like every other day. He entered the building with a cappuccino he had gotten from a cafe and greeted Rosie at the receptionist desk, this time ignoring the numerous social media pages she had open in the background, and walked into his office. A quick glance towards the archive proved that none of the archive staff had arrived yet, as was always the case since he made it a habit to arrive earlier than every other employee.

The institute couldn't run itself after all.

What marked today as a notable date in his perfectly organised calendar was a matter that didn't concern the institute at all. Well, not directly at least.

In the broadest sense, one could technically call it a meeting with the institute's benefactors.

He knew damn well it was just an excuse for the others to try and put him on the spot for being the only one who bothered with having a fixed location.

Beholding knows why he bothers to attend these meetings, it's not like he didn't show up at the countless celebrations and functions the Fairchilds organised as well as the semi-annual Lukas get together, which was mainly hosted out of spite to show up the Fairchilds but still.

The principle still applied after all.

No, what made him look forward to today's meeting, regardless of past disagreements and his own hesitance, was the recent... _activity_ in the archives.

Things were progressing at an alarming rate. Not necessarily faster than expected but merely... stranger than what he was used to.

Now he had never technically seen the details of becoming an archivist, Angus Stacey had kept to himself during his journey and although Jonah had tried his damnest the man had been incredibly difficult to keep track of. Not that he was all that invested or motivated, the extent of his plans only became clearer much later in his life and by then the man was already dead.

Gertrude was an entirely different matter.

Where Angus had been elusive and careful in revealing too much and keeping to himself most of the time, Gertrude preferred to hide in the open. No matter how badly Jonah has tried, peeking into her mind barely revealed anything that might give him insight on the workings and early beginnings of an archivist. It didn't help that she rejected her role in the first place, seeing it as a necessary evil and tool and thereby never committing to it fully.

Jonah thought he had at least somewhat of an overview of the role but recent events only cemented the fact that he still knew very little about the many ways his patron chose to bestow its followers with blessings.

On one hand, his utter inability to see inside Jonathan Sims' head was a sign that his patron had accepted its new archivist. On the other hand, it also made him tear at his own hair in frustration. Gertrude was always aware whenever he tried to look inside her mind (not that he did so very often as he preferred to keep his head on his shoulders) though maybe her lack of progress in the role meant that she was never able to block him out completely.

He hadn't even tried with Agnus.

It is not often that he blamed himself for past mistakes and his lack of curiosity but this was a special case. Too much depended on him having a clear view of everything and everyone and hitting roadblocks now just wasn't an option.

There was also the issue of Jon simply... reading the statements. Oh, how he had celebrated when he saw his archivist picking up his very first statement and reading on, the slight aftertaste of beholding it left in the room. The headache his archivist seemed to suffer from afterwards was not necessarily foreseen but definitely within the realm of possibilities.

Reading about the many horrors this world had to offer was not for the faint of heart after all.

Had he known that things would only escalate from there, he would have stormed inside Jon's office and confiscated every single box in an attempt to limit his drive a bit. He desperately hoped it wasn't too late to put a damper on things a bit.

Thankfully he was still able to see inside the office itself, which proved to be a rather confusing sight.

Not only did Jon continue to read statements daily, no, he simply read too much of them! 

That one Monday would forever be ingrained within Jonah's mind.

At first, his attention was drawn to his archivist sorting through the stack of boxes and assigning his assistants to some of them, much quicker than he thought they would get started.

Granted, it was a bit disappointing watching them carry off boxes full of fraudulent statements but he considered that to be a sign that Jon merely lacked the instinct that Gertrude herself employed when she picked out the Truth from the Lies.

Oh, how wrong he had been.

As soon as Jon sent his assistants away, however, he had begun reading whatever he happened to pull out of the first box.

Most of them were Lies, Gertrude never did intend to keep this place in order after all, but a great number of them were truths as well. Jonah could only watch with a horrifying fascination as Jon had read statement after statement after statement, and it didn't look like he was going to stop any time soon.

In the end, his archivist had consumed 7 true statements with ease (after only 4 Jonah was no longer able to move in his office, his gaze locked on the actions below) but he also didn't seem to notice the amount of... power it produced afterwards.

The archives were brimming with a static intensity to the point where the assistants themselves left early, using thinly veiled excuses and jokes to hide their own fear, and Jon simply... got up and left! Like it was just any other day and he had just finished some desk job! Not to mention, that he seemed to have discarded the statements in random nooks and crannies of his office, mixed in with other irrelevant ones!

He didn't know if that was a sign of a lack of development or his archivist was simply progressing much faster than was normal. As normal as fear-related powers could get anyway.

Going by the lack of sleep, it seemed that the archive had started its pull already and, as a result, left Jon more exhausted. Or maybe Beholding strengthened its ties early on, pulling him down early to ensure a way out was impossible to find...

Jonah could feel the oncoming headache already, assuming his patron's wishes and workings never brought a conclusive answer and decided that some quiet and relaxing paperwork would take his mind off of it.

Good straight forward office work always managed to take his mind off of things.

Eventually, most of the institute's workforce showed up as well and although some of them did not arrive on time, he decided not to send another email reminding them about the importance of punctuality and good work ethic. He really wasn't in the mood to keep his worker bees on their toes today.

Besides, giving them a period of peace always made future reminder all the more effective.

By the time 11 am rolled around, he had managed to put a real dent into the paperwork on his desk and decided to check up on his archives while brewing himself another cappuccino from the machine in his office. Ah, the wonders of technology.

Once again, Beholding's gift was quite invaluable when it came to checking on others.

Tim and Sasha were currently trying to sort through 2 boxes together, from the looks of it additional material had been misplaced somewhere and needed to be attached to the respective files. Martin meanwhile, was on the phone with some agency or other, trying to track down a previous tenant.

All in all, it was a perfectly normal day. As normal as it could get in a stronghold of the Eye anyway.

Or rather _the_ stronghold of the Eye, Pu Songling Research Centre may have the oldest records known to mankind, but London has caught up in the last few decades thanks to the countless supernatural activity in Britain. He took full credit of course.

It was a wonder so many entities call the British isles their home, it was a downright sinkhole, sucking in any and all horrors that inhabited this world.

Or maybe it was no more important than any other, colonisation certainly provided enough reason to come here with the established trade routes after all.

A peek inside his archivist's office showed that it was empty.

Jonah's brow furrowed in thought, maybe he was out elsewhere?

A quick parameter scan around the archives proved to be a fruitless endeavour, Jon was nowhere to be found. He decided to check his email for a requested sick leave or some explanation from the man. Text conversations were simply not proper for the head of the institute to engage in (even if Peter made fun of him for it) and so Elias used his phone mainly for emergency calls.

Or whenever one of his _business_ acquaintances dug up his newest number somewhere and insisted on bothering him with texts. He still wouldn't use emojis no matter how common they had become, it just wasn't professional.

It was different for the Institute's staff, of course, the principle of the thing still applied though.

When there was no new notification explaining his archivist's sudden absence, he decided to look for the man himself. It always took a moment to concentrate, to an outsider's point of view it looked like he was staring off into nothing, and finally, he managed to focus on the archivist's location.

Locating other avatars could always be a bit tricky. It was easier when the target was an avatar of the Eye (or a developing avatar in this case) and therefore less likely to avoid detection.

Soon Jonah found himself looking through a vase which had a painted-on cat with huge green eyes depicted on it.

The loft he was peering into would have been impressing for an apartment in central London, if it wasn't for the many objects cluttering up space inside.

It looked like something out of a cheap sitcom if the protagonist was some sort of a hoarder of various cat-themed decorations as well as accounting for comfort instead of taste. Through the painted eyes, he could see the archivist sleeping beneath a heavy blanket on a sofa, ah so that's where he was.

After some contemplation, he decided to head down into the archives himself and interrogate the others about why their superior decided to forgo work and instead slept on an old couch inside a repurposed warehouse.

Well, he wouldn't mention this information directly, of course, however, an explanation better be provided.

By now, Tim and Sasha had managed to sort their respective messes into two separate files and it seemed that Martin was now doing research that didn't require nosy conversation.

"Have any of you seen Jon? He has yet to appear in my office for a meeting and I can't seem to reach him", he spoke up.

Ah, but it was always rewarding to see others startle when they didn't see him coming. Technically that wasn't a lie, he did take to calling his archivist in more often, now that the distortion had reeled its ugly head and-

No, no a topic for later, when he could discuss it over some expensive alcohol.

"Whuh.. oh.", Sasha was the first to collect herself, "no I haven't seen him, Tim didn't you say he called in sick or something?"

Tim looked somewhat embarrassed by that, "Ah yes, sorry boss. I didn't know if he sent an email or something to let you know and it completely slipped my mind. Jon said he had some sort of emergency and that's about that."

Now, Jonah needed a bit more information than _t_ _hat_ , "An emergency?"

A bit of compulsion slipped into his voice there, barely detectable really.

Tim, of course, didn't notice and continued on, "Yes he called me at like 5 am or so-", he laughed awkwardly, "I uh... kind of offered to tell everyone he died... you know it was early and I wasn't at a 100% yet and he joked that that would be fine and hung up. So yeah... he didn't... really specify."

Jonah sighed, that would be the end of that it seemed. If compulsion didn't manage to drag anything else out then that meant there was no more to it.

"Very well, I shall ask him tomorrow. Should he show up that is.", he replied in barely concealed annoyance, "In any case, I have a meeting with some institute donors in about 1 hour and won't be returning for the rest of the day. Should any of you have any inquires please either direct them to Rosie or send me an email and I shall deal with them tomorrow."

What kind of emergency would compel one to sleep within a repurposed storage facility was outside of his area of expertise, Jon had better explain himself tomorrow.

Not that he could force him to say anything anymore...

Oh yes, he had a feeling those cocktails would be needed.

After some awkward goodbyes, he decided to pack his workbag and head out early after informing the receptionist. Professionalism was still key, even if one was heading out to day drink on the job.

Well, at least he'd get more donations out of it, the other two imbeciles did love gossip so.

\-----------------------------------

In the beginning, Jonah had insisted on meeting within the institute itself, back when he first came to own it.

However, he was met with no small amount of resistance when both Simon and Mordechai argued that it wouldn't be fair to meet within someone's domain as it would 'tip the scales in their favour', whatever that meant. Or rather, as they worded it, 'would allow the voyeur too much leeway'.

When he protested their very inaccurate assessment, Simon spoke up and said that it would be just as well to meet within the vasts domain then.

After that, they decided to agree on a neutral location instead.

Although a meeting inside his own office was preferred, he did eventually have to settle for a nightclub. It wasn't a nightclub 200 years ago but a rather successful dining establishment, however, as he grew used to by now, things change.

He learned to make do, lest Peter tried to convince them to meet at some bar near the peer. How anyone from a well-established family could drink cheap whiskey was beyond him.

Now technically 'the hummingbird' was advertised as a private club for only the most prestigious elite of London, but it had a dance floor for Beholding's sake. Anything with a dancefloor that was too small to be a ballroom counted as a nightclub. But one couldn't expect too much from the current generation.

Jonah knew everything there was to know about the current owner of the hummingbird in case there ever was a situation where he needed to use such knowledge. So far, however, the owner was too busy drinking himself to death to ever care about what happens in his own business.

Small mercy really considering that both Peter and Simon liked to terrorise potential victims in there. No discretion used at all, it was a miracle they hadn't been blacklisted yet.

And there was that headache again, he'd have to focus on one grievance at a time. At least for now anyway.

There was one thing this _nightclub_ didn't lack: expensive alcohol. Or rather stylish drinks full of expensive alcohol.

In the mood he was in, both would do just fine.

Walking inside, he headed straight for their regular table. By now the staff was more than familiar with their little group and knew better than to interrupt or ask for any sort of identification. Not that they couldn't have deduced him being a member from the quality of his suit, but not everyone was as observant.

The table itself was sequestered away in a corner and cut off by high aquariums seated on top the low walls as well as some decorative plants. It was rounded and the seating itself was one whole red sofa which complimented the dark oak table rather nicely.

It also happened to be the best table in the building and the staff knew better than to book it in for someone else during their usual visitation days. Simon may have also threatened to blacklist the place in his own circles but oh well.

It's not like the place would suffer with a dance floor inside, right?

He was getting sidetracked again with petty grievances, focussing on the problem at hand was more important.

Right, Jon was progressing faster than expected or the Eye was getting too invested. Two possible problems, where only one had a possible solution.

Oh, and the distortion was there too, doubtlessly to check on the new archivist since the last one foiled its plans rather splendidly.

Jonah ordered himself a bloody mary and some finger sandwiches before waving the staff off, afterwards, he reached up to rub at his temples in an attempt to clear the headache that was starting to really come through now.

The distortion... was a different problem.

Whereas the Stranger was the Eye's natural foil and thereby out of his line of vision, the distortion mostly preferred to hide in the open. Which meant that any attempts at spying were usually met with a developing blindspot in his otherwise perfect vision following by a major headache that could last a while.

That one afternoon was testament enough to its capricious nature.

Not only did it apparently fool his archivist, who was definitely not far enough ahead to recognise the signs, but it also decided to play the long game this time. And of course, it had to bend time a little too, of course it did.

Which forced Jonah to sit in his office until it went away as to not impede any of Jon's development (he did have to get there himself after all) and question his archivist after.

That, unfortunately, did not yield any concise results as the man either didn't remember anything from that encounter except that his visitor was named Michael and was a neighbour of sorts or Jon was simply too sleep-deprived to notice that their little 'chat' had taken up more than the entire workday.

It was endlessly frustrating and it needed to stop as soon as possible. He'd interfere himself if necessary, he did have a couple of favours left still.

How the distortion even knew about a new archivist within the institute so soon was anyone's guess but it was clear Jonah would have to look into several blindspots within the building.

Gertrude didn't exactly bother with upkeep all that much.

While he was sipping on his drink and trying to will the pain away, he was _not_ going to take a painkiller his current host had a rather unfortunate addiction to them and Jonah was _not_ going through withdrawal again, a figure carefully slid itself into the booth right next to him, blocking the exit.

It took him a rather embarrassingly long time to notice, as distracted as he was.

Peter Lukas chuckled at his annoyed glare and draped himself across the sofa as though he owned it, "Well if I didn't see that expression on your face I'd say you're ignoring me, trouble in the dungeons?"

Jonah scowled and returned to angrily sipping on his drink, "I believe I have already told you of my opinion on that ridiculous nickname of yours."

Peter shrugged nonchalantly, "Well it fits, it's below ground and your employes cant leave thereby making it a dungeon."

He didn't even bother to deign that with a reply, rather glaring at one of the staff to hurry up with his order. By now he had finished his drink and once the deservingly nervous server came around he ordered 2 more.

"Ugh, you know I don't like tomato juice, I prefer rum", Peter said with a grimace on his face.

"Well not all of us can be lost in our childhood fantasies of pretending to be pirates, Peter", he replied with an appropriate amount of bite in his tone, "besides I ordered them for myself."

Peter raised an eyebrow at that, the self-righteous prick. "Now I'm pretty sure that was unwarranted. Cold Bouchard, really cold."

Oh so it was going to be like that, today was it?

Jonah could feel the soft traces of cold tethers sliding around the table and although he would have entertained such careless displays of power in the past, today was different.

Today he was more inclined to smash his drink into the man's face and storm off rather than spending the rest of the day engaging in banter and wagers and whatever their usual nonsense entailed.

By Beholding's might, why did he put up with this fool again?

Peter, deciding to use his brain today, must have noticed his tensed muscles and death grip on the glass and smartly deduced that he wasn't in the mood today.

"Fine", he huffed, "be like that then. Must have been a real dozy if you're already tense as a rattlesnake."

"You have no idea", Elias growled in reply.

Before he could launch into a tirade though, the servers returned. One carried their sandwich tray while another brought his 2 drinks and even picked up on Peters rum order if the big brown bottle was anything to go by. Ah, so there was someone competent working here after all, good to know.

"Who has no idea?", a jovial voice asked.

Ah, and there was Simon, late as usual and showing up out of nowhere.

Today he apparently decided that rainbows were in season and promptly dressed in the most hideous Hawaiian shirt in existence, brown khakis and a big colourful bowtie that seemed to swallow his whole neck. A walking fashion disaster. Jonah cringed a little at the many sequins glittering on the bowie, no accounting for taste really.

"A Pina Colada for me laddie", Simon yelled cheerfully at a startled waiter nearby. The poor sod didn't even see the old man pop up and Jonah knew damn well that was on purpose. No one would buy the harmless old man bit anymore and Simon really needed to change his approach.

After all, barely anyone bothered to listen to their elders anymore, he thought with a no small amount of bitterness.

"Well if it isn't the fossil himself, how's the Titan treating you? Must be nice to have your own transit", he replied with more snark than he felt. The last couple of days had really been grating on his nerves.

Why he thought this meeting would be a proactive way to relax was beyond him.

"Whoa there, what's gotten in your eye?", Simon replied with an equally cheery tone, "and the old wind chute has been treating me rather well, thank you for asking. In fact, I even picked up a quick snack on the way here!"

Jonah could tell he was telling the truth as the other seemed to walk with more bounce in his step than usual. It made him wonder if the act of feeding somehow made the other younger. A thought for another time...

Simon got a mischievous look in his eyes at the silence.

"Oh but you youngsters do complain way too much these days, whatever happened to respecting your elders?"

"Respect is only given where its due", Jonah snapped back this time, "and unlike you, I actually have a prodigy to deal with so lay off with your unwanted advice."

Simon raised his hands in an appeasing gesture, "Oh alright, I'll stop teasing. You're clearly in a mood today arent you laddie? Need I remind you, that I've dealt with my own prodigies in my extraordinarily long life? It isn't always easy being everyone's favourite grandpa after all. "

Peter butted in at that with a sigh, "Oh he's been like this since I arrived, looks like the Dungeons been up in a flurry lately."

Simon nodded in understatement, "Well, of course, those youngsters would be, why anyone would be having a fit if they had to stay underground like that. They need a clear sky and fresh air to thrive! I always thought you should have built the place higher up, you know? Let the Eye see everything from above for once and all that."

"Actually I would attribute such behaviour more to Gertrude's lack of organisation than the position of my archives, thank you very much", Jonah bit back, "though that's hardly the point, the staff is being adequate for once and I haven't had to call for a meeting in weeks", he said and gulped down the rest of his drink.

How many did he have now, three?

"Ah", said Simon with a nod which was surely meant to portray the image of a wise old grandfather about to relay advice, "so it's your prodigy then. What happened did the lad realise his job security is nonexistent ?"

Peter snorted in his drink.

"No", Jonah replied with the most scathing glare he could manage before snatching up a sandwich from the tray, "Jon has not done anything wrong. Well... not on purpose I don't think. He's merely progressing ... differently than I expected"

Admitting that much immediately grabbed the others attention. Hook, line and sinker.

"Different", Peter stated, trying to sound as inconspicuous as possible.

"Yes Peter, different. Not good or bad just different. It doesn't help that the Distortion has visited him several times now and is apparently trying to play nice."

That had Simon leaning forward in his seat a bit, ah curiosity a most powerful tool in the right hands. Maybe he'd even get some advice out of them that wasn't completely useless.

"The ol twister was in your dungeons? So soon?"

"Yeah that doesn't sound very typical", Peter added, "and what does that have to do with your archivist being weird, what did he develop Spiral powers overnight or something?"

"Well, it does tend to act capriciously every once in a while, doesn't it? Behaving in an unexpectant manner is what makes ut so frustrating in the first place", Jonah muttered bitterly, "a couple of weeks back I called Jon in my office and he seemed to be especially confrontational. When I tried to probe further as to why he was less forthcoming than usual I was unable to retrieve more information and he started to complain about the disorganised mess Gertrude left behind."

"Huh, sounds like typical pencil pusher behaviour to me", Peter cheerfully added.

Jonah glared at him, "Yes well that part was perhaps the most normal occurrence out of all of them. I believe I shouldn't have to mention how out of character it is for an employe to talk back to their supervisor, do I? You would think they'd care a little more for their position."

Simon waved him off, "You know you can't fire em, once the ol Peeper got em, they're trapped for good. Then what? He somehow cleaned the whole mess by himself or something? Or are you just worked up because someone finally had the spine to stand up to that ridiculous dress code of yours"

"Ok, first of all, you wouldn't know the first thing about work-appropriate clothing and second of all I am not 'worked up' about the dress code. It's much worse than _that_."

"So what happened then if it's not the dress code?", Peter asked, "Pretty sure you once ranted about someone coming in with ankle socks once".

"IT IS NOT ABOUT THE STUPID DRESSCODE-", Jonah cut himself off before his yelling could alert the staff and went to rub at his temples once more, "you imbeciles aren't listening. I'm am not _upset_ because my archivist is apparently no longer caring about decorum anymore, I am upset because he's somehow able to consume multiple statements without noticing and has managed to attract the Spiral's attention."

"Consuming statements is what they do though", Simon piped in, accepting his pina colada from a frazzled waiter and ordering another bloody mary, "that's what archivists do, after all, been like that since the beginning of my time"

Jonah really wanted to ask him what he meant by that and how much he knew but he was also keenly aware that he had no chance while suffering from a headache and Simon having fed recently. Instead, he filed that information away for future poker nights when they would be discussing wagers.

"So what", Simon continued, "did he get a tummy ache or something? How much did he have? A good chamomile tea should take care of that"

"I'm pretty sure you cannot cure an entity related ailment with simple chamomile tea" Jonah quipped back sarcastically.

Simon shrugged with a grin.

"Besides, he didn't just have one or two statements, oh no, he somehow managed to consume 7 of them and then just, just... and then he just walked out as if nothing happened! The man consumed 7 statements and walked away without noticing, how does that even happen?", Jonah continued ranting angrily.

"7 whole statements? Don't think chamomile tea will help you with that one", Peter chimed in, continuing to inhale the sandwiches at a rapid speed.

"Oh my that sounds rather unusual, don't you think that maybe he's just farther ahead than you thought?", Simon questioned, taking the bloody mary from the oncoming water and sliding it Jonah's way.

"That's what I thought at the beginning, considering that the assistants had to flee the institute from the sheer power emitting from the place", Jonah said and started sipping on his 3rd (or was it 5th?) drink, "but then, THEN it gets even stranger. Because as soon as I worked up a plan on how to approach this behaviour so that I wouldn't have to monitor him too strongly the Distortion shows up."

"Oh what did it do, trap one of the sacrificial sheep you call employees in its hallways?", Peter chimed in gleefully, ordering another serving of sandwiches. How long have they been sitting there that the whole tray disappeared?

"No, thank you very much Peter, it just introduced itself as a 'neighbour' and somehow Jon didn't notice the massive time skip when he suddenly clocked out 6 hours later when their meeting probably only took place for an hour or so. It even implied it might show up again in the future", he grumbled frustratingly.

Now, where did the rest of his drink go?

"You know there's an idea I might steal", Simon cheerfully piped in, "who knows maybe I'll give the lad a good shake and see if I manage to rattle a couple of brain cells lose, that oughta wisen him up a little. I'll even do it free of charge!"

Jonah glared at him, "you are not allowed to destroy my archives"

"Not destroy... just rearrange a little... can't get any messier now can it?", Simon continued gleefully.

"Eh, the place always lacked more space", Peter grumbled. "too many people in close quarters"

"None of you are allowed within the institute's walls unless you have my explicit permission", Jonah growled, "or else I might decide to keep you there forever for questioning. Might even be good practice for Jon later on", he said and put his head down on the table.

Simon held out his hands in surrender, "Oh alright, no need to sic your mutt on me I get it. Oh, but look at the time! Alas, I can't stay any longer, I've got a fascinating meeting with a gentleman in brazil about the many merits of water skiing!"

Was it late? A quick glance on his wristwatch confirmed it was late afternoon already.

Peter nodded, "Yeah I get it, also wanted to spend some time inland for a bit, maybe grab some of that quality food around the corner"

Jonah grimaced at the mention of street food. Hotdogs and Pizza slices were for children going to a carnival, not grown men.

"You wanna come with?", Peter gave him the side-eye in a way that clearly betrayed his poor attempt at nonchalance, "I finally managed to export a family housekeeper to the apartment, wouldn't be opposed to pick up some wine on the way as well, you know, have a night in and all."

Usually, Jonah would have sprung at the opportunity to get drunk and forget for a while but his headache wasn't going away so easily, he also needed a plan to tackle the whole Distortion issue.

"No thanks, I already have one headache, I don't want another", he replied in the most neutral voice he could manage in his drunken state.

Peter shrugged and downed the rest of his drink, "Suit yourself."

Simon clapped his hands together "Oh you two really need to get a room, I'm heading out!", he slapped a hundred-pound note on the table, much to the shock of the employee who had been serving them all night, a new one going by the startled reaction, and said "now don't you spend it all in one place!", before literally sprinting outside.

Jonah shook his head and put on his jacket as he ran to the exit himself before Peter could get ideas to offer him a ride or something equally ridiculous.

Instead, he hailed a cab that has definitely seen better days and made for his apartment.

In the evening, when his headache has subsided and he lay in bed reading a book, he decided to check up on Jon once more.

At first, he saw him returning from the store with a recently purchased grocery bags and relaxed into his pillow with a sigh.

However, as soon as his archivist entered the apartment his visions distorted and he immediately tensed. Again?! Why would it grow so bold to visit his home?!

There was nothing he could do about it though, save for running over there himself without an explanation and ruining everything he had worked towards.

The stress, in combination with the alcohol, left him unable to fall asleep and he lay awake until the early morning hours and by then it was already 6 am. Jonah just barely managed to send Rosie an email informing her of his absence for the day before he passed out.

When he woke up, it was evening once more and as he went to grab a cup of tea for his nerves, Jonah checked up on Jon once more. That caused him to drop his mug in shock, as he could not locate the man anywhere and he was forced to stay up through another sleepless night until eventually, he forced himself to fall asleep.

By the time Friday morning rolled around he had gotten a measly 3 hours of sleep and was more than ready to head into the institute and shake Jon until the man provided some goddamn answers.

\-----------------------------------

Thursday morning, Jon was still cursing Michael under his breath for distorting time and taking away his free time. As he dug through his workbag it made him wonder if the other intended it to be annoying. Either Michael didn't know about his new sleep schedule and did it to make him more tired, or it was yet another side effect of the spiral's prolonged presence.

He eventually did manage to collect his things and put them away, finding two pride pins he vaguely recalled putting in there at some point during his college days. He considered the two, one pin depicting the bisexual and the other the ace flag, before deciding that he might as well put them on.

Thankfully he had long ditched his stuffy suit jackets and replaced them with vests and white dress shirts which made the pins easier to put on.

It was pride month after all.

He sincerely doubted Elias would say anything and even if he did it would at least give Jon an excuse to punch the man. Or at the very least file a complaint with HR.

The thought amused him more than he thought.

Ah well, if he had to keep his knowledge a secret he might as well make Jonah's life a bureaucratic nightmare.

There was nothing unusual about his trip to work, with the exception that Jon was early for once and actually had enough time left to pick up breakfast sandwiches for himself and the others on the way, and he eventually entered the institute 15 minutes early.

What _was_ unusual though, was that Rosie informed him that Elias wasn't in yet. Considering that the other was punctual to a fault made Jon instantly suspicious. There was nothing he could do about it though, safe for asking questions that would make himself look suspicious, and so he went to the kitchen to put away the food and also get some tea started.

If he remembered correctly Martin liked his with sugar and Tim drank his with a lemon slice. Sasha... god what did Sasha like again? Jon tried raking his brain for the information, hoping that the NotThem didn't scramble too much of his memories and eventually concluded it must've been sugar and milk.

"Oh hey bossman, you're here early! Watcha been up to yesterday?", Tim's voice called from behind.

"I was busy feeding off of humanities greatest fears and striking fear into my enemies hearts, Tim", Jon replied sarcastically.

"Ah same old same old then", Tim chuckled before making for the kitchen as well, "ah hey did you get tea started? You know Martins not going to like that"

Jon snorted, handing Tim his cup which he accepted with a thanks, and pulled out a sandwich.

"Yes I know but I figured he's going to get plenty of opportunities to make more later."

He turned to hand Tim his sandwich, "Here, I went by the cafe today on my way. It's got lettuce, tomato, cucumbers as well as fried chicken with hot sauce. They didn't have chilli so I had to settle for red pepper sauce instead."

Tim looked surprised for a moment before accepting the bag, "Well damn I didn't think you'd remember my favourite, thanks for that! And I see you're wearing your identification badges today, gonna visit the parade as well?"

Jon blinked at him for a while, confused as to what exactly Tim was referring to when he realised he was talking about the pins Jon had stuck to his vest.

"Ah I'm not sure yet, I might. I usually went with friends in the past but I might just be too busy to attend this time. Aren't you wearing yours? You usually treat it as some sort of national holiday so I figured..."

Tim put up his hands to stop him, "No need for an explanation Jonathan. Of course, I treat it as a holiday its the one time I get to march with my people", at this he balled up a fist and pressed it to his chest in mock salute before breaking into a grin and dropping the pose.

"And to answer your question", Tim pulled back his blazer to show the bisexual pin he had placed on the inside of his jacket, "I hide in the shadows, that's where I'm most powerful."

That actually caught Jon off guard and startled a laugh out of him, he managed to reign himself in though.

Tim grinned at him in return, "besides its more convenient this way, I'm less likely to lose it that way and then when I show up at the march I just pin it to the outside."

"Alright fair enough, I've considered asking Georgie myself but I don't know if our schedules will line up to make it work".

Tim's face did an odd thing for a moment where it scrunched up before relaxing almost immediately after, "Ah that's right your lady friend", the way he said friend made it sound like he was implying something, "so you two went to college together right? What's she been doing after your breakup or whatever"

Tim clearly tried to pretend to be casual about the whole thing though Jon didn't really know what was so interesting about this line of conversation.

"Well, she's... ah what is it called again? A streamer? She does a podcast and also does gaming online. She's good enough to be able to afford her own studio apartment what with all the sponsors she has, I'm pretty sure she has a lifetime supply of mattresses now."

Tim nodded, "Man that sounds pretty rad so how long have you two been-"

"Good morning!"

Jon tried his best not to tense, thankfully Tim was too distracted by Martin to notice his tensed shoulders and he forced himself to relax before turning around. He really did hate getting caught off guard.

"Good morning Martin", Jon replied in what he hoped was a normal tone, "I picked up sandwiches on my way to work"

Martin too seemed to be surprised by this as if Jon buying sandwiches for everyone was an anomaly.

"Oh, thanks that's really kind of you! Did you also make tea?", he asked incredulously.

"Oh err yes, I arrived earlier than usual today so I figured I'd do something with my time", Jon turned around to hand Martin his breakfast bag, "I picked one with ham and egg since I didn't know what you like, I hope that's alright."

That was a lie, Jon knew that ham and egg sandwiches were Martin's favourite and he was not the least bit sorry about abusing his knowledge for that.

Martin flushed a little, "Ah er yes I mean of course its fine! That's actually my favourite."

Jon smiled warmly in return, "Oh that's good, the tea just finished brewing if you want to pour yourself a cup."

Tim snorted in the background.

Martin threw him a look, which Jon might have described as scathing if it wasn't ruined by the blush on Martin's face, and turned to the teapot.

"Good morning guys!!", Sasha's voice rang out from the workspace next to the kitchen, "Martin could you also pour me a cup? Sugar and milk, please!"

Ah, so Jon had been right about that, good to know his powers restored most of his memories after he figured the imposter out.

Sasha eventually did walk into the small kitchen, which was quickly filling up.

"Whoa I was going to brag about how I'm on time for once and everyone's here already, what gives?"

Jon shrugged, "I woke up early today."

"My train was early", Tim piped up.

"No traffic on the road", Martin responded and handed her a steaming cup.

"Oh well, a streak of good luck I'd say, so what were you going on about before I got here?", Sasha asked and accepted the cup, "and hey Jon I see you've seen the light and converted to a greater cause, welcome to the rainbow troops!"

She held up her hand with a grin and although Jon really wouldn't have entertained such nonsense in the past, he couldn't resist at the moment. He reached up and gave her a high five.

His past self could get bent for being a stick in the mud.

"Yeah thanks, I decided to join my division in college and have been fighting since"

Martin chuckled, "Nothing but respect for our troops"

Sasha openly laughed at that, "Hell yeah! So what we're going to march as a team or what?"

Tim spoke up from the wall he had leaned against, "We were just talking about it, I'm definitely going and Jon has to check in with his paramour if their schedules align, I believe you and Martin already agreed to go as a trio."

Jon rolled his eyes at Tim's choice of wording and turned around to fish out Sasha's sandwich as well, "Yeah well it's not exactly easy Tim, we recently agreed to joint custody again as well and the little man can't be left alone by himself now can he?"

The silence that immediately fell upon the room behind him was so tense, the riffle of the paper bag sounded like a jet engine in comparison.

He turned to Sasha and handed her the wrapped sandwich, "Here, it's salami and cheese and vegetables, hope that's alright."

Everyone was more or less staring at him now with different degrees of confusion and shock.

"What?"

Sasha was the first to recover, "Whoa no hold on now, what did you mean just now?"

He blinked at her for a while before finally understanding what had rooted everyone to the ground and made them lose their voice.

Rather embarrassed of his choice of wording, Jon reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Right, sometimes I forget not everyone is aware of some of the inside jokes we have, I'm talking about a cat here. Not like... an actual child"

The atmosphere in the room instantly switched to relief which was frankly hilarious.

Tim slumped against the wall, "Oh thank fuck I thought for a minute I was in the twilight zone or something. First, you bring us sandwiches and now you have a secret son? Oh man."

Martin chuckled awkwardly, "Yeah I have to agree with Tim here, I was questioning how much we really knew you there."

Oh, you have no idea, Jon thought bitterly. He forgot sometimes that they weren't used to this new version of him and that he needed to be more careful about such things.

"Yeah well, I know I look like I'm in my forties but come now what did you really think I had a toddler at home or something?", Jon replied trying to lighten the mood.

Sasha seemed to look the most embarrassed out of all of them, "Yeah well... it's not like you share a whole lot about yourself", she mumbled.

Jon didn't know why that affected him as much as it did but he became keenly aware of how little he actually knew about all of them. Well 'knowing' in the sense that his knowledge came from things they told him and not something his abilities allowed to see.

"Yeah well... I suppose I have a hard time warming up to people", he sighed, feeling more tired by the minute, "I'll try to do better. Then again it's not like you ask, do you?"

"No I suppose we don't do we?", Martin said quietly.

Jon sighed, he was the oldest of the bunch by a gargantuan margin and talking around the topic was not something he should be doing.

He had lost them once already, after all.

"Look, it's fine I wasn't the most... approachable in the past but let's just agree to leave that behind, alright?"

Tim was the first to straighten up, "Yeah I'm with Jon here, I'll agree to be more considerate if you promise you'll do the same."

Jon smiled at that, relaxing his shoulders slightly, "It's a deal then. I'll check with Georgie about the parade and maybe we can all go together?"

Tim clapped him on the shoulder, "Aye, fair enough we'll be the archival quartet"

"Oh yeah! I can wear my suspenders!", Sasha spoke up excitedly

"I think I have my patches somewhere as well", Martin piped in.

"Sounds like a plan", Jon smiled, "think Elias will insist on tagging along as well?"

Tim rolled his eyes at that, "Ughh don't get me started, he totally hounded me yesterday about you not showing up, why didn't you send an email man? You know how he gets about that."

Jon chuckled, he would be lying if that wasn't on purpose, "I suppose it just slipped my mind then."

"Oh yeah didn't you say Jon died or something", Sasha added on looking rather smug.

"Wha! Yeah, well he caught me off guard all right?", Tim bristled, "besides, what are you gonna do bossman, fire me?", he looked at Jon equally smug.

Jon took a deep breath, mentally kicking himself for his past grievances "Tim you’re my friend and I care about you.", he said with a gentle smile, "I would never fire you for no reason and I probably shouldn't have joked about that in the first place."

He wasn't the only one surprised by that admission.

Jon decided then and there that he'd have to put in actual effort into this if he wanted any of them to survive what was yet to come. Of course, that didn't mean that it wasn't emotionally taxing to talk about his feelings but if it meant they would survive he would apologise a thousand times and talk about his problems for once.

Honesty was a good first step, how exactly he would go about that was yet to be decided though. 

"Now, let's get back to work, alright? I'm pretty sure Elias hasn't shown up today and I think we should be able to relax for once if it stays that way."

The others nodded in agreement and as they headed out of the kitchen, Tim bumped briefly against him in a show of support and smiled at him before moving to his desk.

Yes, trying something else for once surely wouldn't hurt.

\--------------------------------------------------

After that emotionally exhausting day, Jon eventually did manage to return home without revealing too much of himself.

The chronic sleep deprivation didn't help much etíther.

After taking a quick shower and making himself some dinner, he headed over to his bedroom. The wall mirror there looked as it always had and Jon was quick to collect the blankets off of his bed before retrieving the pillows he had left in his living room as well.

For some reason, relying on a reflection didn't seem right to him and taking the blankets themselves into his little pocket dimension made it more tangible somehow.

Once he grabbed everything he needed, Jon braced himself and stepped into the mirror.

Thankfully, he did not fall from the sky this time around, as the Eye didn't bother to manipulate his exit point. Why it had done so in the first place was still a mystery but if Jon's experience with these things taught him anything, it's that questioning his patron would lead to anything but a night of restful sleep.

The copy of his bedroom was as accurate as the real deal, and although Jon would've been content to fall asleep in the sea-shell coloured replica of his room, something pulled him to the outside.

With a heavy sigh, by now more than tired of the Eye's shenanigans, Jon shouldered his blanket load and made for the exit.

The street outside his apartment building looked as it always did. The limitless expanse he had first arrived in had been replaced by an off-colour replica of London and it made Jon wonder how far this copy really went.

If he kept walking, would he come upon the ocean perhaps? Could he visit Europe, looking out through the little reflective windows into the outside world that glowed with a quiet tingling sound? If so, would he have to swim across the broad reflection of the sea or could he simply walk? Maybe he could make a bridge, or hell even a boat that could take him across.

Jon managed to shake himself out of his daydreams, no, he came here to get some sleep dammit!

Exploration of this newfound space would have to wait, first, he'd have to find out if he could return to a normal sleep cycle. Time may not pass here, but getting rest was more important than worrying about such things.

At least for now.

Would it make a difference though? If he came here during the day rather than the night?

While he was standing on the street, and feeling more ridiculous by the minute, holding his bedding and standing around in his pyjamas, a slight shimmer of light drew his attention from the corner of his eyes.

Looking up, he saw a white marble staircase leading up past his apartment building and high up towards the cloudy layer that covered the sky of this world.

The staircase had no railings and although it seemed to span several miles long, Jon was sure that it would be as sturdy as real rock.

His gaze followed its end to a platform hovering above the monochrome white copy of London, from his position on the ground he could barely make out the tips of rounded tower tops and the beginning of geometric architecture begging to be explored.

Jon didn't hesitate when he began climbing the staircase.

Just as he predicted, it went quite high up. At the very least it seemingly hovered over his own apartment complex which had to have 6 stories at least. The closer he got to the top though, the more he could see of the platform itself.

By the looks of it, it wasn't even one platform at all, but only one of many that spread out further back into the sky and varied on different elevation levels. The platform he was trying to reach connected to many more that were higher up via different staircases and each had its own shape and size.

The stairs too varied in shapes and form, though he noted that most of them had some form of railings despite looking like they originated from different time periods. One staircase wound upwards in a broad shape which reminded him of ballroom stairs. Another had slight cracks in its heavy form and looked to be of roman design with statues at the base.

The itch to explore was getting stronger but the heavy feeling that permeated the air told him that right now was not the time to do so.

Instead, his eyes focussed on the centre of the platform he was standing on. A big kingsized bed, seashell-white like the rest of this strange world, stood at the centre. The rest of the platform, however, was completely bare of any other furniture or objects.

Looking up once more, he saw the vague shapes of towers and what looked to be temples standing on other platforms further up.

"Well, this is new", Jon thought.

The buildings, although blurry from his standpoint, also seemed to originate from different time periods. One might have sprung from ancient Greece while another resembled the taj mahal palace and yet another reminded him of Russian palace towers.

The humming in his head increased in velocity and he managed to shake himself out of his stupor long enough to observe the bed once more. He began approaching it cautiously but after a couple of moments, he grew more confident in his stride. Surely a piece of furniture wouldn't jump out to bite him.

... right?

Once he reached the side of the bed, he carefully placed his pillows on top. When nothing happened Jon breathed a sigh of relief and flopped down onto the sinfully soft mattress. Granted, the bed had its own pillows and blanket but after he awoke in his second life it became near impossible to get any sort of sleep without something heavy on top of him.

It took a while to get comfortable, arranging the pillows around him and burying himself under two blankets was no easy task, but in the end, exhaustion took over and he figured that it was as comfortable as he was going to get without more strain on his part. The mattress was incredibly soft and Jon distantly remembered the feeling of being swaddled in cotton and warmth.

It would've shocked him, becoming so jaded to no longer care about these sorts of things, but in his experience, it was always better to enjoy comfort while he could. Dealing with Elias was draining itself but having Michael to deal with as well? No, that was too much for him to handle. His stress level was through the roof whenever the spiral showed up and it took the rest of his strained nerves to smile and bear whatever Michael might want to throw at him.

Thankfully, it has worked so far but Jon would rather not push himself. Hell, the last time he was this paranoid he stalked his own coworkers to their homes (granted one of them was an imposter but still).

No, he definitely needed a breather and more time to think. For now, he'd have to go along with the Eye's antics and push the questions he has to the backside if he wanted to remain inconspicuous.

Getting enough sleep would be a great start for one.

The incessant hum, which emanated from above as far as he could tell, seemed to agree and lessened to a faint presence in the back of his head and became easier to ignore. Right, if his ever-watching patron agreed then he'd better get to it before the blasted thing decided to blow up his brains or something.

A faint sliver of amusement flickered through his mind's eye at the thought.

For once Jon chose to ignore it and instead rolled over to further bury himself into his blankets. Soon enough, he fell into a deep slumber.

\---------------------

**_The Archivist was sitting at his desk and rifling through recent statements. The clock on the wall struck eleven and punctual as every other day an Assistant would knock on the door and bring another box of Truths for the Archivist to read. The Assistant did not have a face, for such a thing was not necessary. The Assistant did have eyes, for they were very necessary. And as they were necessary the Assistants had them. Today the Archivist had a new statement, an older one if the taste in the air was to be trusted, and the Archivist knew that his Eyes were always to be trusted._ **

**_The Archivist knew there no words to read on the paper. Much like he knew that the Assistant did not have a face. Much like he knew that he wasn't sitting in his office and no Assistant was actually bringing him Truths and that there was no clock on the wall nor were there words on any of the other stacks littering this seemingly endless place._ **

**_The rows stretched on further and further in all directions. To anyone else’s, it seemed to stretch on forever. To his Eyes, however, it wasn't endless at all. The towers of cabinets and files grew higher than anyone could possibly see, yet the Archivist knew that there was an end to them too._ **

**_Or rather, would have been an End. For such things were never written or recorded on paper and therefore did not exist. Not anymore, the Archivist thought with grim satisfaction, some stories required different endings after all. As it stood the towers of paper would keep growing the longer the clock continued ticking and there would not be an End to them at all. For reading about the same thing was terribly dull and didn't taste quite as good.  
_ **

**_Today's story was not an ending at all and so the Archivist began to read:_ **

_"There once was a tower that wasn't a tower just yet_

_but in the minds' eyes, it would be a tower soon_

_the light was so close_

_the light was so bright_

_all they had to do was follow and they too could bask in its limitless illumination._

_In Shinar, they found_ _a sturdy base,_

_where one could see if one could only look from high above_

_they knew it was merely a matter of time until they could take flight_

_and so they heaved and pulled their heavy burden,_

_piled it high, high above_

_until it breached the sky's crushing layer of white indifference._

_A little moth was at the top_

_and as it placed the final stone on_ _sturdy foundations,_

_not even the flood could hope to shake,_

_the little moth found its light_

_and the light looked back._

_Their pilgrimage came to an end and the tower shattered into a million pieces,_

_and the little moth learned how to fly."_

**The Archivist laughed, poems were his favourite after all.**

\--------------------------------

When Jon startled back into bleary wakefulness several hours later, he found it very strange that he didn't see the events happen like he usually did, when he was roaming his dreamscape. His office seemed a rather dull location to dream about.

**Then again, no one remembers their own birth, do they?**

As soon as that thought entered his head it was already gone and Jon passed out again.

Later on, he wouldn't remember thinking it at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elias in front of the Institute staff holding his new iPhone and texting Peter: sorry texts are unprofessional  
> Oh also Elias gets to like everything I hate cause I hate the fucker  
> So timeline goes like this: Elias bar time at Wednesday, goes to bed in the evening, Jon has a chat with Michael, Elias is awake all night passes out early Thursday morning, wakes up Thursday evening after Jon enters mirror to sleep cant find Jon anywhere, stays up almost all night again and heads to work on Friday  
> Jon's little dream palace was inspired by the star palace design in gris  
> next chapter Jon and Georgie will be hanging out with the assistants  
> Ps: I probably should have considered that but to give ya’ll a hint, that last part is a Tower of Babel reference ;)


	16. House hunters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your patience! Uni has been rough lately and my productivity has taken a hit but I'm back ^^' and now:  
> Pride time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Eye trying to pet Jon like a cat: pspspspsp  
> Jon, not being able to mentally handle such a force: AHHHHHHHHH-  
> The Eye: damn aight chill

Jon woke with a glaring headache, his vision blurring and the light around him piercing his view before he was forced to close them once more lest his head actually shattered into pieces.

He fumbled around the bed until he found his blanket and quickly pulled it over his head to escape the onslaught on his senses.

It had been a long time since he had gotten a migraine this bad and it was as if the sunlight shining into his bedroom was personally out to get him.

Not that it would be surprising, odder things have happened after all.

The blanket eased the pain a bit and he slowly pried his eyes open, mindful of the stings of pain still blurring his vision. Perhaps if he made it to the kitchen, he could get a glass of water and lay back down. Maybe even manage to call Tim and skip work if-

Suddenly, a very distant rumbling noise brushed over his mind, leaving him with a suffocating amount of pain, and he instinctively flinched back. Maybe if he kept still, he could-

It happened again, this time even more forceful, like a hand pressing down on his body, followed by a wave of agony that raked trough his brain and left him shivering and shaking in his bed from the intensity of it.

He shut his eyes tightly and buried himself into the mattress with a strained noise, hoping to escape as nausea rolled trough him and made tears prickle in his eyes.

The feeling withdrew once more and the distant rumble returned, this time more careful and slower than before and he felt a series of images appear in his mind's eye slowly as if someone was deliberately pausing between each one to make sure not to overwhelm him.

A library, followed by a brown wooden staircase materialized in his mind and the realization that he wasn't alone hit him like a kick in the gut. Jon could feel a dim notion of concern prickling from the edges of his mind and it was enough to make his hair stand on end. The chill of the outside air hit his sweat-soaked temples and he made an effort to bury himself deeper under the blankets.

It took a while for the shaking to subside, the presence in his mind still pressing at its edges and he was careful to keep himself still lest it became worse.

Right, he remembered climbing into the mirror and following a staircase or other and then climbing into a bed. The Eye was there too and perhaps he had even dream though for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was why was there a **taste of paper in his mouth**?

All at once, the memory of the events of the current week washed over him. Michaels visits, Gertrude's corpse, Elias trying to question him-

If it was physically possible, he would have launched himself out of his bed in shock. The moment he became aware and started to focus on the intruder in his head, the more the pressure in his mind increased until there was nothing but a deafening buzzing, his head was splitting open why was this-

The Eye, for now Jon knew that it wasn't just a regular headache that caused him pain, withdrew its presence immediately and he was left alone gasping in the following silence.  
  
The room was still so very cold and the blankets only helped so much before he had to stick his head out for air and the light was stabbing through his eyelids and it was just _too much_.

Around him, the room started to change. Although he kept his eyes firmly shut, Jon could still feel the light around him dimming and the room growing darker by the second. He could hear the distant sound of rain hitting a window suddenly starting up out of nowhere and the air growing warmer by a couple of degrees until it was no longer as chilly.

The change immediately made him feel better, though he wasn't sure how he felt about this world responding to his needs. Yet another thing to investigate later.

It took him several minutes to untense his body and even out his breathing and although the sharp piercing pain was now gone, the migraine remained.

Just his luck then that supernatural headaches still acted like normal ones.

Slowly, he rolled onto his back and unwound himself from the tight ball he had curled himself into earlier. When the pain was more manageable, he took a chance and peeked his head out of the covers once more. The room was now pleasantly dark and even without opening his eyes, Jon could tell there was a fireplace crackling somewhere to the side of him, filling the room with pleasant warmth and helping him relax by the minute.

Once his breathing had evened out considerably, he managed to crack his eyes open.

His vision was still slightly blurry and the right side of his face was still pulsing with pain, yet he no longer felt as if he was dying and that's all that mattered.

From past experiences, Jon knew that that would most likely last another day a two and he really wished he had brought some water with him.

At least the nausea was receding.

A quick movement from the corner of his eyes made him flinch. Jon carefully turned his head, fully aware that if something had managed to sneak up on him that he would be unable to fight back and silently hoping that it had just been his overactive imagination.

To his great relief, it was only a small handheld mirror that had been placed on the handstand next to him. Or rather appeared next to him.

As his vision cleared a bit, Jon noticed that it had a small eye at the bottom of the handle that was staring at him. The detail on the eyelashes and the sclera was startling enough and he was sure that it followed his every movement.

Had it not been as monochrome white like everything else in this world, then he would have even come to the conclusion that it was real.

Jon waited until his vision wasn't as blurry and took a look around the rest of the room.

Blinking blearily, he did find the fireplace, with disconcertingly white flames, crackling a bit further off of the left side of his bed.

As he slowly turned his head, he also spotted a window to his right that was being pelted with droplets of rain. With the exception of some tacky curtains and a bear rug (with empty eye sockets thank god), the rest of the room was bare.

Strange, he hadn't considered decoration to be the Eye's forte.

Once he was sure he could turn his head without his vision blurring from pain, he began to slowly sit up. It was just as soft and comfortable as when he had begun sleeping in it and Jon distantly wondered if it was purposefully designed that way to lull him to sleep and entice him into staying longer.

Or maybe that was just what every bed felt like that hadn't been owned for several years and he just didn't know.

If his memory served right, he had walked up to a platform outside the copy of his apartment and found the bed there.

The Eye must have put the room there afterwards, it would explain the sparse decorations and fire. The longer he looked, the more discrepancies did he notice.

For one, the flame was a stark white that hurt to look at for too long, and the rest of the fireplace was made out of adequately sized blocks with no detail at all.

It must have placed them there to emulate the real deal, and going by the faint noise, that almost sounded like grumbling, it had been a rush job done in a moment notice.

The rain must have been added in as well, Jon very much doubted it rained in this place.

…

Unless the Eye somehow started pelting his windows with tears from above the cloud layer, where he was sure it now resided.

The mental image of that was incredibly concerning and Jon was quick to push it aside for his own sanity. Whether the rain was real or not didn't matter as long as he didn't come into contact with it.

He reached up to rub at his temples, hoping to quell the migraine somewhat, before he felt a tug at his mind that left him hissing in pain. It took him a moment to find his voice.

“Q-Quit it”, Jon managed to gasp out.

The tugging stopped and a small sliver of irritation flickered through him before that too stopped.

Jon unclenched his jaw, taking slow careful breaths when a tingling sound to his left caught his attention.

The small mirror on the nightstand next to him, which upon closer inspection was just a block with drawers and details painted on top to make it look realistic, was glowing.

“Do you...”, Jon's voice cracked a bit and he coughed a couple of times from the dryness in his throat, “Do you want me to look inside?”, he rasped.

God, he really wanted some water.

The tinkle continued and Jon decided to take that as confirmation. If he thought about it, it almost sounded like a windchime. He reached out to pick up the mirror and the sound immediately stopped.

It was a bit difficult to look inside, though once the glow receded he could see the surface began to clear. Jon was greeted with the sight of his own bathroom back home.

Based on the perspective he'd have to guess that he was looking through his own bathroom mirror.

Though that made no sense, he had already emerged from his mirror into the copy of his own apartment.

Maybe it wasn't just a one on one connection, perhaps there was a way to use several entrances and end up at the same destination?

Like one could ride different trains from different parts of town to get to the same central station, he mused.

“Did… did you somehow connect this to my bathroom?”, he asked in wonder.

He was met with an approving hum from the mirror in front of him and if he had to guess, he'd even claim the Eye on it looked extremely pleased with itself.

“Huh, well… I suppose that's something”, he continued, meeting its stare, “can you do other places too?”

The Eye in front of him remained silent for a moment before blinking once slowly and Jon watched in amazement as the surface began to glow once more and change to show him different scenes.

First, he was looking down on a big city as if standing on a skyscraper and leaning down. He was most likely looking through the glass panel, he mused.

Then he was looking at a train passing by directly over him. A puddle perhaps?

Finally, he saw a big boat bobbing on the horizon as his window began to rush towards it and shattered against the side of the boat before looking up at it from below. A wave, he realized with amazement.

“So everything you reflect, we can see”, he whispered at the little mirror in front of him.

The Eye on it crinkled in amusement and Jon watched as it glowed and showed him his own bathroom again. Only then did he remember his parched throat.

“Oh right”, he said, slightly embarrassed at his own enthralled state, and reached out towards the surface.

His hand passed through the surface seamlessly and Jon had to shuffle around a bit until he could turn the faucet on.

He carefully placed the mirror in his lap, as if trying to balance a plate of food, and began scooping out handfuls of water through the surface.

The angle was a bit awkward as he had to bend his elbows while he reached down, and sure some of the escaping water droplets were running down the frame of the mirror, but he managed it somehow.

The important part was that he had water.

After several handfuls, his thirst had abated somewhat and Jon relaxed back into the backboard of the bed. Although he probably should have conjured up a cup, it would have most likely shattered immediately after he would have held it out, much like the wicker basket had in Georgie's apartment.

It definitely would have made the process easier though, he thought while looking at the water-stained blanket.

The other option was to plug the sink up and create a small puddle at the bottom of it, readjust the viewpoint of the mirror so he was looking up at the facet, and then hold it above his head to drink while at the same time sticking his arm out to control the water flow and make sure he didn't spill water anywhere.

It would have been too much effort but the thought of someone walking into his flat and seeing a hand stick out of the sink while slurping noises were emanating from it amused him greatly.

Knowing his luck though, that someone might just be Michael and Jon wasn't entirely sure he could offer a sufficient explanation.

Though perhaps sticking his hands out of his bathroom mirror and scooping out water from the faucet was even weirder.

Then again, what the distortion considered normal was anyone's guess so maybe it would endear him to it somehow. 

As he was resting against the backboard, and the mirror's surface had reverted back to its usual reflective form, he began drifting off once more. The bed was really just too comfortable and surely a bit more sleep wouldn't hurt.

The humming above started up again, this time more hesitant, and Jon was quick to hold a hand up towards the ceiling and wave it off.

There was no way he could handle any more antics in his current state. His head might quite literally just explode if the Eye tried something again.

"I need to sleep this off", he said, carefully placing the mirror in his lap back onto the block that served as a nightstand next to him and turning it in such a way that the Eye on it was facing him, "the water helped a bit but I'm not sure if I can keep exploring at this rate. I'll need a bit more rest before that, my migraines usually last for quite a while and they usually only go away after I get more sleep."

He yawned, carefully lowering himself back onto the bed and waited until he was comfortably sunk into the sinfully soft mattress.

"Next time you want me to look at something maybe do so with less force so my head doesn't split open."

He wasn't quite sure when he had begun to act so nonchalantly towards his situation, though technically he couldn't do anything about it either so maybe it didn't matter.

So far his patron was more than happy to indulge him while their goals aligned and Jon was more than happy to play along and gather more information in the process.

After a moment of silence, a hum laced with agreement reverbed from above him and this time Jon barely felt a tingle in the air. It must've learned that its force was too much for him to handle.

"That just now will do", he said with a sigh, "and if you really have to show me something inside my own head then at least do it slowly. I can only process so much at once."

Another hum, this time sounding almost thoughtful, reverbed out. It reminded him off a small air blast that trains gave off when they drove by too fast and one was standing too close to the tracks.

"All right you do that", Jon mumbled, his eyes already closing, "not like we're going to lose any time right? No more weird dreams please, I really need the energy more than you think."

As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered when he last had a dream. Ah well, it probably wasn't important anyway...

The sky above the little monochrome white room fell silent as the Archivist slept undisturbed throughout the ongoing night.

\-----------------------------------

The next time he was brought back into consciousness, an odd creaking noise emanated from the fireplace to his left.

Jon cracked one of his eyes open and glanced in the direction of the noise only to find the fireplace he had previously observed in the room in pieces.

Well, not completely in pieces, the actual firepit inside was still whole, as well as the hearth and the bright white fire within that was still going. The mantle, however, as well as the tiles surrounding it were now levitating in midair.

He watched as the mantle, which had been a poorly constructed long square with no decoration on it before, was now changing in midair. Delicate engravings appeared on the front of it with the block itself giving off creaking sounds as if groaning under strain.

Eventually, the front of it was finished, now resembling an actual marble mantle rather than a poorly designed placeholder, and it turned on its next side and the process began anew.

It looked like the Eye took a little offence to his observation and was trying to fix it.

He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

Jon sighed, reaching up to wipe the remaining sleep from his eyes before sitting up with great relief now that the migraine had passed, and gently made to get up from the bed.

The creaking noise in front of him stopped but he was quick to wave it away, "Don't stop on my behalf, I'm just going to stretch my legs for a moment."

An agreeing hum reverbed from above and Jon carefully picked up the blanket he had brought in from his own apartment and began to slowly shuffle outside. He left the other blanket and pillows there and made a note to retrieve them later.

The mental communication had left him exhausted and he knew that he would have to pace himself if he wanted to have enough energy left for the weekend.

Or was it still Friday?

Jon raked his brain for a moment before giving up and letting Beholding flood his senses briefly. It was much easier than relying on his own muddy memory. Ah, that's right, it was still Thursday evening, time didn't pass in here after all.

He closed his senses off to focus on the task at hand.

Once he reached the doorway, which was just a hole in the wall with a fake board that looked like a door with no actual handle that disappeared immediately when he tried to touch it, he stepped outside.

By the looks of it, the platform he had first entered was still there and the Eye had merely built a room around the bed for his own convenience.

As expected, it wasn't raining either and once he took a closer look at the window he had seen from inside, he noticed that the raindrops were confined to the transparent glass frame and didn't give off any sound from outside. Like the display screen of a tablet playing a video.

He wondered if it was another reflection from some part of the world where it was raining, or maybe just an illusion the Eye created like the white fire in the firepit.

How it emulated sound was beyond his knowledge and he'd rather not ask at the moment lest it delayed his progress even more.

Once he reached the edge of the platform, he decided to take a seat and see if he could get a better view of his surroundings.

The short walk had left him more tired than expected and it made him wonder just how far the Eye's influence could reach.

If direct exposure to Beholding could obliterate his enemies, could a minor force affect someone's physical state and leave them drained?

Or perhaps mental exhaustion affected the body as well and the Eye just aggravated these symptoms.

Down below the platform, he could still make out the monochrome apartment building he lived in. A near-perfect copy of the original.

He briefly wondered if it would be possible to one day emulate the colours as well or if this world was forever stuck in its monochrome state, giving echoes of colours rather than displaying them. The apple he had brought inside had been red, yet the cubes were not.

Further ahead, he saw the rest of London sprawling in the distance, the unchanging grey clouds above were still there as well. Jon knew with utmost certainty that if the sky would ever clear, his patron would be revealed above.

Based on the feeling of being watched, he wasn't the only one being observed from a distance. He hoped that the clouds would never part, the last time they had met face to face (or rather eye to eye), Jon was yelling his lungs out.

Or perhaps it just left some mystery to the whole situation. As much as they loved observing, being observed was not something they always appreciated. Secrets had to be kept after all.

For the strangest reason, he got the feeling that his patron thought the same.

So far it had been rather considerate for a giant Eyeball that was physically unable to give someone their privacy. It had brought him here to show him something after all.

He looked down to the side, a bit further off, another staircase was leading upwards towards another platform. And from there one, there was yet another staircase that led to yet another platform and so forth.

He was sure that if he kept following them that there would be no end to it.

Structurally, it shouldn’t have been possible for so many platforms to exist without any support and not to collapse, though he had also fallen from great heights and didn't splatter on the ground so maybe physics weren't nearly as important here as he previously thought.

If truly anything could exist here without any outside ramifications, then Jon could have probably constructed an entire palace on one very tall pole without it toppling to the side.

Hell, he could probably line up an endless wall of shelves that went farther than should have been possible.

Maybe even make his own archives, not like he could do a worse job at managing them than Elias or Gertrude, he thought bitterly.

…

But surely not, he didn't nearly have enough information for that. The Archives were powerful because they were full of a century's worth of books and journals and still expanded the longer they stood. He couldn't possibly amass that much information in such little time.

...

Could he?

Jon thought back to the little gazebo he had failed at making and the improved upon once he found out how they were made and wondered. It was still there, wasn't it?

The Eye hadn't discarded it. Not everything he made had been judged as obsolete.

…

He thought about the mantle place, that the Eye had been picking apart and reconstructing after Jon had noticed how hollow and superficial it was and wondered.

The Sky above him didn't change, but it was a close enough replica for Jon to lie on his back and cloud watch anyway, letting his thoughts drift for once.

Surely collecting information meant that any information would do, no? The world around him was a near-perfect copy of the real deal after all, the more he watched and expanded upon it, the closer it came to the truth.

It was better than secondhand experiences or poorly written books even, right?

A window into the real world, a perfect copy better than a film could capture, good enough to walk around and observe.

A questioning hum above rang out.

Jon hesitated for a moment before carefully lowering his own mental shield in response and hesitantly reached out himself, trusting his patron to have learned by now and not tear his mind apart.

Once no pain followed, he awkwardly tried to conjure up images of a big sprawling library, with pillars lining the hallway, soft carpets on the floor and neatly organized shelves stretching for miles on end and reaching up farther than the human eye could see.

With comfortable little nooks that enticed someone to sit down and read and a clean system that made finding anything extremely easy.

He imagined his assistants filling away information and himself walking from door to door, with each one having something different behind it.

All neatly organized, and perfectly safe from outside forces. Brimming full of power and Beholding and untouched by the other forces that sought to destroy it.

He brought the memory of Jane Prentiss forth, the worms swarming the hallways and her destroying a box of statements. The story Basira told him, of the flesh attacking when Jared Hopworth arrived sooner than expected because Elias had wanted him to mark Jon and laying waste to the Archives in the process. Jon thought of the spider and the spiral door on top of his bookshelf that had been there from the beginning that he hadn’t noticed because he just didn’t know any better.

The Eye wasn't capable of actions like revenge, it was passive in its nature, yet as Jon carefully withdrew the small mental tendril that connected them, he could feel it thinking.

He sincerely hoped he would be able to convince it. Ideally, getting his assistants out of this mess was the best outcome but Jon also knew that by now they might just be in too deep to change anything about it.

He knew it was too late for him anyway so might as well make the best of it and cling to anything he still cared about.

The gears were turning and deep down he knew that it would agree with his assessment, Elias hadn't been nearly as vigilant with keeping it sated and now he would pay the price.

Not that the odds were in his favour, time travel was certainly not one of those things he could have possibly expected to happen but it was enough.

The sky above stayed silent, yet it wasn't a refusal.

All he would have to do is to convince his patron by filling the rest of this world and his assistants would be free. As free as they could get in any case, but free from Elias and that was all that mattered for now.

The tapes he had pushed through the mirror came to mind, and he breathed a little laugh of relief at having a starting point for once rather than stumble around blindly.

"Yes", Jon thought, "this will do after all."

\-----------------------------------

Eventually, Jon had to exit the mirror if he wanted time to continue flowing as it did.

Technically he could have done some people watching through the handheld mirror and pass time that way but he had gotten rather hungry and one couldn't cook chicken alfredo inside there.

Human food wasn't as sating as statements but the craving was still there. He wondered if other avatars felt the same.

He had taken to calling it the 'mirror realm' rather than 'mirror world' as it was more apt to describe it as such. A ' **realm** ' was an abstract sphere of influence, real or imagined while a ' **world'** is human collective existence; existence in general.

As no humans lived there, except for himself if he was particularly strong in denial, then that made the place a realm. And he added in 'mirror' as it was the entry point of the place and 'near-perfect monochrome copy of the world we reside in' didn't roll as smoothly off the tongue.

He could have also called it 'reflective realm' and gone for the alliteration, but 'RR' was also an abbreviation for plenty other things and calling it 'MR' made it sound as if it was a title.

A 'mister' so to say, which fit rather well as he was the so-called 'mister' behind the place after all.

…

He was getting off-topic again.

Either way, the 'MR' as Jon had dubbed it, was perfect for building up his own archive and Jon would start by fetching the tapes he had thrown in there on Monday.

Right after the house tour with Georgie.

God, it had been a really long week.

Michael hadn't shown up at his apartment yet either, though Jon reassured himself that it had only been a short amount of time and even if the other wouldn't agree to his proposal there were still plenty of other ways he could hide from Elias.

Maybe the coffin that would arrive around May could be the key.

Either that, or he'd have to seek out Leitner and get his hands on that books of his.

Sadly killing Elias wasn't an option with his assistants on the line but Jon could wait.

He could wait forever if necessary.

Thankfully, the amount of sleep he had gotten left him more alert than usual, as the moment he entered the institute he was confronted by a very apologetic Rosie who informed him that Elias had wanted to see him in his office.

When he tried to inquire further, she admitted that she didn't know when the meeting was supposed to take place as the other hadn't shown up yet.

Strange, Elias was usually were punctual when it came to the Archives and it would have even been concerning if Tim hadn't informed him about a meeting with the institute's benefactors and at that point, it was easy enough to put two and two together.

If he remembered correctly, both Simon and Peter liked to rile the other up whenever they could get away with it and for all he knew, his evil prick of a boss was just taking a day off to recover emotionally.

Around 12 pm, he began to pack up his bag and text Georgie about their planned meeting spot. The institute's staff had a scheduled half-day off for the pride parade and Jon and his assistants had taken advantage of it to go together.

Jon didn't care much for crowds but he could admit that it was well worth the effort.

Tim, Sasha and Martin were going to join Jon and Georgie and drive up to the inner city so they could park a little further off and walk the rest of the way there.

From there on, they would split up with Jon and Georgie leaving together as she needed to finish work on her show and Jon had planned to spend the night at her place so they could head out early in the morning together.

Granted, he was a little nervous about introducing Georgie to his assistants and he really hoped they would get along well.

They never had the opportunity to get to know each other better and Jon wanted to change that.

Hell, Georgie had never even met Sasha and he was certain they would bond over their shared admiration for video games. Martin was easy to get along with on principle and being likeable all around and he hoped Tim wouldn't ask her any embarrassing questions about their time at college.

…

He sent her a text not to mention anything just to be safe.

As he was texting on his phone and leaving the hallway, he accidentally bumped into someone.

Looking up, he noticed that that someone was Elias.

"Ah, Jon", the other said with a tight smile, "I was just about to fetch you, do you have a minute?"

Upon closer inspection, the man looked extremely haggard. His usually pristine suit was crumpled, his white-collar crinkled and his tie hung loosely around his neck.

He also had a major case of bed hair and if asked, Jon would have thought that the other just got out of bed.

"What about.", he asked, trying to sound as disinterested as possible. Maybe the other would get the hint and go away. He didn't have time for this.

"Oh, nothing too serious. I merely wanted to inquire about your absence this week.", Elias continued, clearly trying to catch him in a lie by using his business voice. Prick.

Jon only scoffed in response and finished texting Georgie before meeting the others stare with a blank look.

"That's rather personal."

"Surely missing a day off work requires an explanation, no?", Elias asked smoothly, clearly trying to hide his own annoyance.

"If it happens outside of work I don't owe you an explanation", Jon said calmly, but firmly enough to get across that he wasn't about to argue about it, "I took one of my sick days and that's all you need to know."

Elias smile became even more strained and his left eye started to twitch again. It took him a moment to collect himself before he let out a tightly controlled exhale.

"Right."

Jon shrugged, not willing to waste any more time on this than necessary, "I have to go now, I'm sure this can wait until Monday. The others are waiting for me", and brushed past his very put out looking boss without waiting for an answer.

He knew damn well Jonah couldn't say anything about it as he had been the one to approve the half day in the first place.

Taking a sick day off wasn't all that uncommon either with other staff without his boss complaining and he certainly didn't need to owe anyone an explanation.

If Elias wanted to argue about he could take it to HR and Jon would make sure to fight him on it too.

As he watched Georgie's car roll up outside after joining his assistants he realized that he wouldn’t have cared either way.

Odd how so much could change if one wasn't paying attention. Though perhaps he could stick to barely caring about more things, it certainly seemed to work out for Simon and as long as he didn't hurt anybody for his own gain it would be worth it.

Behind him standing in the lobby, Elias was taking a rather heated phone call and Rosie distantly wondered how one man could use so many curse words in one sentence as she slipped away to her lunch break.

As she was leaving, she caught a glimpse of her boss ranting angrily at his phone as he headed towards the institute's garage.

Maybe he had another one of his meetings.

God only knew how running an institute could be so stressful.

\-----------------------------------

"All right! Everybody ready?!", Georgie greeted them rather enthusiastically.

Jon couldn't help but chuckle at that, as he opened the door he noticed a small furry head peaking up at him from the passenger seat.

"You brought the Admiral?", he asked, looking down at the furry little menace in question who was trying his best to catch the small felt cube hanging from the rearview mirror.

"Yep!", Georgie exclaimed with a grin, "they're not gonna start the fireworks until mid-afternoon and we're only going to stay for an hour or so before I have to head back. He'd get impatient otherwise. I figured the little spacer could use some fresh air."

Jon snorted, picking up the orange fiend and seating himself into the car seat, mindful of the cat backpack at his feet.

"Who's the Admiral?", asked Tim from behind, having decided to claim the middle seat. An unfortunate choice as he had to bent his head to fit. Next to him, Martin had taken a seat behind Jon and Sasha was seated behind the driver's seat.

"Oh my god! He's adorable!", Sasha exclaimed, leaning forward to try and scratch his chin. Jon had trouble preventing the little furball from climbing to the back and held on to his little harness with one hand while trying to buckle his seatbelt with the other. He had no idea how some people claimed cats to be very anti-social, with the way the Admiral was trying to climb into the back seat one would think he didn't get the attention at home.

"You guys have a cat?", Martin asked behind him, leaning to the side and bumping into Tim in an attempt to get a closer look. 

Tim, who was essentially sandwiched between his coworkers and the roof, didn't seem to mind in the slightest. It was surprisingly endearing to see his assistants get along, though perhaps they've always been like that before everything went downhill and he'd just forgotten.

"Ah man, can we hold him?", Tim asked, nearly falling forward in an attempt to reach the little furball who was also desperately trying to struggle out of Jon's hold. Unfortunately for him, that meant Jon had a face full of orange fur and paws in his hair.

"Buckle your seatbelts everyone", Georgie chimed in, fixing the rearview mirror the Admiral had pushed to the side, "once everyone's buckled up you can release the beast, Jon."

Jon snorted at that, "Shouldn't I get to hold him during the ride? I've got the most space."

"Hey don't be greedy! You get to enjoy his company whenever you feel like it!", scolded Georgie playfully. Jon pulled a face at that.

"Yeah Jon", Sasha said from behind with a grin, "you get to enjoy his company every day."

"Yeah, don't be greedy, Jon", Tim piped in, making grabbing motions at the little menace, "us backwater peasants should get to see a man of real status to take as an example, no?"

Martin let out a snort, trying to play it off with a cough at the last minute and Jon felt his resistance falter away. Well... it's not like they had gotten to know the Admiral in his last life, had they?

"Oh alright", he said and finally released the orange beast who immediately jumped into Tim's arms like a lost sailor's wife after the former had returned after many years lost at sea, "maybe his good manners will rub off on you."

Georgie playfully hit him against the arm and he couldn’t help but grin.

"Are we off?", she asked, turning the engine key. Jon spared a brief moment to look at his assistants.

Behind them, Tim was currently busy trying to fold his upper body over the Admiral to prevent Sasha from stealing him away to her own lap, much to her chagrin, while Martin was carefully scratching the cat's chin and trying not to smile.

Georgie caught him looking and gave him a shit-eating grin and wiggled her eyebrows at him.

Jon scoffed, trying his best not to blush, "Yeah let's go."

\-----------------------------------

In the meantime, Elias Bouchard was busy breaking every traffic law imaginable whilst trying to see where his employees went.

Unsurprisingly, focussing on two things at once wasn't the smartest idea when driving a car.

Simon himself had called them over to see the crowds and although he would have usually rebuffed the other with some terse words, it provided the perfect opportunity to gather information.

Just why did his employes decide to attend these blasted celebrations?!

Behind him, Peter Lukas, who had been ushered into the car after it had arrived at the port with screeching tires, was trying to hold on to the expensive leather seats for dear life. Although crowds weren't agreeable with him the prospect of Jonah turning his gaze on him was even less so.

Simon Fairchild, who had called the others over in the first place, was meanwhile enjoying a nice tall glass of ice tea in the little café he had chosen so he could watch the crowds march by.

The crowds were full of colourful people of all shapes and sizes and sometimes music could be heard through the crowds.

The 21st century sure knew how to party!

\-----------------------------------

The streets were full of people, not surprisingly as past events could easily contain up to 30,000 participants. They were still a bit off from the centre point but one could already see the celebrations taking place. Sometimes small groups of people would walk by waving flags as they made their way to the heart of the parade.

Still, the sheer amount was overwhelming to witness no matter how often Jon saw it.

He had started attending the moment he got accepted into Oxford and his grandmother was no longer dictating his life.

In his first week, he had met Georgie through one of the band clubs and by the time June rolled around she had basically dragged him along with her group of friends.

That was part of the reason they had started the band and he didn't regret going in the slightest.

Big crowds were always a bit overwhelming for him and he never stayed for long anymore but the spirit of it counted.

He had his own pins attached to his vest and Georgie had taken off her jacket to reveal a bright bisexual flag on her T-shirt. For some reason this trip had him feeling nostalgic over his college days and he wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

Tim was sporting a pair of suspenders with the pansexual flag on and Sasha had the same tiny flag and dangling earrings that she had chosen for the occasion. Martin had put on a rainbow-coloured handkerchief around his neck and was waving a tiny flag as well.

For some reason, watching the 5 of them walk down the streets and cheer, left him with a lump in his throat.

It had been a long, long time since anyone he knew had reason to smile and Jon planned to memorize every second of it. Was it even possible to miss something that had never happened before?

He shook himself out of his thoughts, it didn't matter. It was happening now and he would make sure it would happen again.

After marching with the rest of the crowd, they eventually looped back around to their starting point and Georgie pointed out a small café that served sandwiches and had a 'rainbow discount' for the week.

It also had a black cat on its sign which immediately endeared Georgie and Tim and so they went inside.

The Admiral had been very patient during their walk, looking out at the big colourful world from his backpack, but had gotten fussy after about an hour and was more than ready to be let out.

Although both Georgie and Jon had tried to pretty much train him to go on walks like a dog, he still didn't like to sit still in a confined space for very long. Jon could relate to that, it had taken him a while to get over the claustrophobia the Strangers ilk had left him with.

The owner of the café was immediately smitten with the Admiral and allowed them to take him out to sit at the table when they walked in.

Of course, when one thing goes right, another goes wrong.

Somewhere in the back corner, at a table hidden from the entryway, he could feel Elias staring at him. And he wasn't alone either.

Going by the sliver of Beholding that allowed him to be more aware than usual, Simon Fairchild and Peter Lukas were with him.

Jon tried his best to remain unaffected, trying not to give himself away to the trio behind them, whilst furiously trying to think of a plan. He ordered himself a sandwich before joining the others at their table.

Hopefully, they wouldn't try anything with so many witnesses and since they were clearly trying to stay out of view, Jon figured they weren't here for a confrontation.

He willed himself to relax and decided to wait and see if they would make a move.

At their table, Georgie had taken out some cat treats for the Admiral, which Tim insisted on feeding to him as if it was a bushel of grapes while Sasha and Martin looked on in amusement.

Georgie had also decided to start up a conversation and Jon immediately regretted letting her go first at the counter and not being able to mitigate the damage a little when he heard what she was talking about.

"-Oh yeah, we officially met about a week when I got accepted. Back then I only knew him as the voice guy, of course, it's only much later that we-"

"Whoa what", Sasha asked, "what do you mean by voice guy?"

"Well, he was kind of known for doing these spot-on impressions of characters and celebrities and such, so he kind of got known as the voice guy his first week there", Georgie chuckled, "you know at first I thought that he was faking his accent to be more endearing or something-"

"Ok, that's enough, I was not faking my accent Georgie", Jon interrupted, "and it was you who started the whole 'voice guy' thing in the first place."

"Yeah, well it stuck, didn't it?", she said with a grin, "that's what you get for showing off at the party, mister."

Jon scoffed, though there was little heat behind it.

Before he could deign that with a response, however, Tim interrupted.

"So what kind of voices are we talking about here?", he asked, now no longer distracted by the Admiral who had curled up into a ball on his lap and was purring up a storm, "was it like your special party trick or something."

Georgie nodded, "Oh yeah, Jon eventually had to do impressions for anyone who needed a good voice actor on their digital presentation. At some point, he even considered charging people. "

"Georgie…", Jon hissed, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Oh c'mon there's nothing to be ashamed about here", she replied with a playful wink. "your muppet impressions were the stuff of legends."

Martin choked on a sudden snort of laughter and Jon had never wanted to sink into the floor more than he did now.

Though before either Sasha or Tim could open their mouths, the waiter approached their tables with their orders and Jon was quick to focus on his food and ignore Tim's shit-eating grin from across from him. Something told him that this conversation wasn't over yet.

He instead tried to focus on the Elias' table at the back of the room.

Georgie had gotten the others engaged in her own personal college experience and how she eventually became known as the campus' local tarot card reader which led into her own fascination with the macabre and how she eventually came to do her show.

He sipped on his drink and focused on the table while the others were distracted.

Letting his senses reach out, he focussed on a small metal vase that showed the trio's reflection and Jon tried his best to tune into it somehow. The trouble of gaining new abilities was that he didn't know how to use them properly yet.

To his great surprise, 3 voices began to flood his senses and the noise of the café was soon fading into the background.

He focused his eyes on the small metal spoon he had been given along with his drink and began to listen to the small reflection in it.

\-----------------------------------

"Don't you think I have enough to deal with, without you dragging me halfway across London just to sit in a stupid café and watch a bunch of drunken fools walk down the street as if a war just ended?!", came the angry voice of Elias, who has trying his best to hush yell at the other without being too obvious.

He looked a bit like a soaked cat, he must have hurried to get here.

"Well, I figured we could just enjoy the crowds for a bit, you know so you can let off some of that steam of yours that has been building up for a while now. I didn't think you'd be so affected by it", came Simon's slightly amused voice from the table.

"Affected?! Affected?!", Elias spat back at him, "You told me it was an emergency that would threaten our very existence!"

Odd, so Simon had led them here?

"It is an emergency!", Simon argued in a huff, "how often do you get to celebrate the love across the world? It can't all be business all the time old boy, you've gotta enjoy yourself a bit too."

Going by the way Elias' face was turning rapidly red, he didn't seem to share that sentiment.

Jon quickly scanned over the figure of Peter Lukas who, for all the world, looked like he would rather be anywhere else than here and was leaning against the glass window and looking at the crowds with a sort of hunger about him.

Well, it was certainly an opportunity to feed the Lonely, though perhaps the presence of the other two was ruining it a bit, even if they were ignoring him.

He decided that he didn't want to hear whatever profanities Elias had amassed over the 300 years he had been around and quickly withdrew his gaze before the other could open his mouth.

The spoon eventually settled into its regular form and a quick glance around proved that nobody had seen or heard anything. This power was a surprisingly handy tool to have, even if he wasn't quite as practised at utilising it.

It was certainly a relief if others couldn’t see what he did.

Elias hadn't noticed that he was being watched either though, that could have been due to the fact that he was too angry to pay attention.

He'd have to be more careful in the future until he knew for a fact that no one could see him. Something about being watched back by anyone other than his patron just rubbed him the wrong way.

The trouble with practising on other avatars meant that they could take offence if they saw him spying on them and regular people wouldn't notice either way. He'd have to be very careful to make sure word didn't get out.

Jon decided to tune into Martin's conversation with Georgie while the others were busy eating.

He had picked up on bits and pieces of something baking related and wondered if the two were exchanging tips.

Maybe he'd even find out what Martin would like.

How come in the long period of time they've known each other, Jon didn't even know his favourite pastry?

…

Then again, it's not like the apocalypse allowed for baking-related conversations.

He shook his head and began listening to Georgie's voice.

"-Oh man, we're planning to make little cat-shaped buns filled with different stuff like meat and vegetables, cooking is so much more fun when you can do it with others.", Georgie excitedly rattled on.

"Oh, that sounds great! Jon told me he had been getting into cooking recently", Martin replied, his voice had a hesitant tone to it as if he didn't know how to continue the conversation but still very much wanted it to.

Jon remembered his own struggles with social interactions and made a mental note to bring Georgie along as often as possible.

She got him out of his own shell back in college, surely she would be a good influence on Martin as well?

"Sadly cooking with Jon was always a disaster, he almost set the kitchen on fire so many times", she said with a chuckle, "Though for cat-shaped food I'd probably do a cooking segment with him if I had to, even if it means the fire department has to pay us a visit."

Jon instantly regretted introducing them.

He noticed with a brief jolt of Beholding that Elias was staring awfully hard at her. The Eye really needed another way to warn him, at this point he was way too jumpy.

Although he saw no reason for the other to be interested in baking, the unyielding stare was most definitely directed at Georgie. It made sense somewhat, Georgie was a new player on the game board and perhaps he merely wanted to assess her usefulness, the creep.

Until he realized that Elias wasn't paying attention to the conversation or Georgie at all.

No, he wasn't staring at Georgie herself, but the ghost earing she was wearing.

Suddenly, a stray thought entered his head and Jon's impulsive nature reared its ugly head.

Ah, well, a little chaos never hurt anybody, right?

"Well", he said, fully aware of Elias gaze snapping over to him and smiling at Georgie nonetheless, "cat-shaped food is certainly good enough to die for. Do you think the fire department will pitch in for a custom themed cat funeral? You know, if you do plan to invite me to your baking show and neither of us makes it."

Georgie looked at him blankly for a moment before breaking into a grin herself, "Oh, don't even joke about that unless you mean it, mister! The ways of the macabre are only for those worthy of accepting its bounty. Cooking is an art after all! Unless you want to join in, I suggest you stay in your own turf."

Jon chuckled, ignoring his assistants' confused looks and Elias' intensifying stare, "Of course. Though I'll have you know that I've improved greatly since then."

She smirked at him, "Only when it comes to pasta, I'd like to see you try and make a loaf of bread!"

Jon rolled his eyes, "I'll have you know that pasta is serious business. Do you want to head out now? I think I might just make myself some bread today", he added on out of spite.

It wasn't like he had a lot to do at night after all. Surely baking bread wouldn't be that difficult?

Georgie grinned at him, "Send me pictures later as proof or it didn't happen."

She carefully placed the purring Admiral on her lap and into the cat backpack before standing up, "Yeah let's, I still need to finish that segment on our Admiral hour."

"Oh, did you decide to include him officially?", Jon asked.

"Well, of course, he's more than deserving of stardom", Georgie said proudly, putting the little spacer in his ship and onto her back, "the question is whether the world is ready for him."

This got a bemused look from his assistants and Jon shouldered his own bag before turning to the others, "I'll head out as well, me and Georgie still have to discuss our weekend plans."

For some ungodly reason, this got Tim's attention. Why is it that whenever Jon talked about his life outside of work, Tim suddenly took an interest? 

It's not like he never mentioned anything before!

...

Right?

Jon hated to admit to it but he may have been more anti-social during his previous life than he remembered.

Raking his brain for answers, he realized he couldn't recall speaking to anyone outside of the archive after his promotion if it happened at all that is. He wanted to slap himself in his ignorance.

Of course, Tim would be surprised, surely his new behaviour would be considered suspicious! He felt a little guilty about not sharing anything with the others before and decided to engage more in the future.

It's not like he actually planned on organizing the Archives after all.

"Oh hey, you guys gonna spend the weekend together? Never pegged Jon as someone who would enjoy a movie night!", he said, clearly trying to be casual about it.

Considering the fact that Jon spent the entirety of his all-nighters watching documentaries, he was inclined to disagree.

No wonder Tim was acting strange, usually, Jon declined to accompany him or the others anywhere, mostly out of sleep deprivation.

Hopefully, the mirror realm would help him in that regard, if the headaches would stop that is.

"Oh no, we're going to look at houses together. Finding good real estate these days is hard work!", she said before waving them goodbye and heading out, "it was nice meeting you all though, maybe we'll run into each other again!"

Jon could have sworn his assistants were caught off guard by that, though he hadn't the slightest clue why. Then again, he didn't mention anything about looking for houses lately.

Yeah, that must have been it.

Elias too was startled by her reply though he was considerably better at hiding his surprise than Martin or Tim. Sasha was smart enough to check her phone and-

"C'mon Jon, we still have to make it back through the crowds!"

He decided to cut that line of thought short before he focused on them too much and ended up staring too hard. Or worse, letting a trace of Beholding slip.

He nodded to Georgie and waved his assistants goodbye, carefully not making any eye contact with either of them and avoiding Elias gaze just in case they could tell something was up with him.

"I'm coming! I'll see you all on Monday alright?", he asked over his shoulder and following Georgie outside.

Somehow, he had managed to come out of this whole encounter without revealing anything, regardless of the countless questions thrown his way, and as he let Georgie lead them through the cheering crowds another stray thought filtered through his head.

Just what were Jonah Magnus, Simon Fairchild and Peter Lukas doing together in the same cafe he and his friends decided to visit?

\---------------------------------------------

"So", Peter interrupted the silence, tactless as ever, "since when does your Archivist have a girlfriend?"

"Or better yet, why does he have a girlfriend that is aligned with the ol' Terminus?", Simon cheerfully piped up, "I'm starting to think you may not nearly know him as well as you think my friend."

Jonah wanted to grit his teeth in frustration and throw the nearest potted plant out the window, however, there was a strange glint in Simon's eyes that made him pause.

As the other stared after the retreating back of his Archivist, he had an odd feeling that the other wasn't referring to Jon's sudden ability to form connections outside of work.

Instead, he carefully picked up his cup and sipped the coffee, enjoying the small moment before it was undoubtedly shattered by the two buffoons in front of him once more.

"They went to university together. I believed miss Georgie Baker wasn't properly attuned yet, from the few glimpses into her life I concluded that she couldn't possibly serve any entity. I must have been wrong."

There, an admission of his own mistakes, usually this led to Simon offering some information in return by way of gloating.

It better be worth his pride.

Peter, although giving his own shit-eating grin which Jonah did his best to ignore, thankfully decided to stay silent for once.

"Hmm... I suppose so, I couldn't sense anything that might indicate a clear connection. Many experience a brush with death in this day and age after all", Simon hummed thoughtfully, "though you can never quite tell with their lot. The Endless Sleep never bothers advertising itself after all. It doesn't really need to."

Jonah could feel the questions rising in his throat but decided to swallow them down for now.

"I see", he replied, careful not to slip and snap Fairchild out of those rare moments where he decided to be forthcoming with his near millennia-long folder of knowledge for once, "as for Jon, I saw no indicator that they are involved with each other in any way. Then again, this generation does love to throw themselves into relationships faster than is proper."

The Victorian gentleman in him recoiled at the idea of a fast marriage, proper courting was invented for a reason after all, though he had long acknowledged that he needed to get used to it.

The 21st century was full of baffling new customs, this, however, was the most grievous offence so far.

Peter snorted into his own drink, undoubtedly laughing at his 'delicate sensibilities' and his 'old fashioned way of thinking' as he liked to call it. Prick.

Simon only continued looking towards the exit with a thoughtful expression on his face before folding his hands under his chin and humming in response.

As Jonah watched the rest of the Archive's assistants slowly filter out of the restaurant, undoubtedly to join the roaring crowds outside once more, he could still feel the questions bubble up in his throat.

_"Unless you want to join in, I suggest you stay in your own turf."_

_"Of course. Though I'll have you know that I've improved greatly since then."_

He wanted to **_know_**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me finding THE funniest way to bring up the mechanisms in the fic:  
>  >:3  
>  Realising it won't be until Arc 3:  
>  >:/  
>  also I made some memes:
> 
> [Georgie's cat backpack](https://slowopoke.tumblr.com/post/190984947630)
> 
> Please leave a comment if you liked it!


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